GADAG: The failure of the monsoon has forced farmers to try new ways to irrigate their standing crops. Many farmers in Koppal and neighbouring districts are providing water to their standing crops through tankers. With no rain, Devappa Korlagundi, a farmer, is irrigating his chilli crop by carrying pots of water to his farm on his motorcycle.
Many farmers in Koppal district want to try Devappa’s idea as hiring tankers has become costly. Farmers in the district have spent huge sums of money on growing various crops, including chilli. But this time, they lost their crops for want of rain between July and September.
Some farmers in Gadag and Koppal, who expected a good harvest of onion and chilli crops after sowing, are now disappointed because of the failure of the monsoon.
Although many farmers have borewells and wells, they are unable to irrigate their crops due to erratic electricity supply to their pump sets.
Devappa too faced this problem. He hit upon the idea of irrigating his chilli crop by carrying water to his farm on his motorcycle a few weeks ago. Since then, he has been transporting water on his motorcycle twice a day from a pond which is one km away from his farm. His family members help him fill pots with water.
Devappa said, “There is no rain now. But my chilli crop is growing well and I have to save this crop at any cost as I have suffered losses earlier. I am carrying water to my farm on my motorcycle. The cost of petrol has also gone up. Hope I will get a good price for my chilli crop.”
Karnataka State Farmers’ Association president Andanppa Klur said, “We have appealed to the government to declare MSP for all crops and also to extend crop insurance benefits to them on time.”