THANJAVUR: Following a spell of heavy rain in parts of the Thanjavur district on Wednesday night, the farmers expressed their happiness as it has helped the Kuruvai crop, which were on the verge of wilting. However, due to scanty or no rain in some other parts of the district, the farmers have demanded releasing more water into the Grand Anaicut Canal.
According to sources, the Kuruvai paddy's acreage in Thanjavur stands at 74,652 hectares this year, which is 1,836 hectares more than last year's acreage of 72,816 hectares. Though the storage in Mettur dam was sufficient when the water was released on June 12, the storage has now dwindled.
In this context, the farmers have been demanding the release of water from the reservoirs of Karnataka, as per the Supreme Court's order to save the standing Kuruvai crop. P Sukumaran, a farmer from the Tirupponthuruthi area said the rains that lashed past midnight on Wednesday has been a boon to the farmers in the area as many Kuruvai paddy fields had started breaking due to the lack of water. Ravi, another farmer from the Tiruvaiyaru area, said these rains will suffice for another 15 days for the farmers cultivating Kuruvai crop who were solely dependent on canal water.
Meanwhile, due to the lack of rain in the Orathanadu area, the farmers cultivating Kuruvai paddy expressed distress over the situation. "We are in need of water. However, there is no water in the canals. We are unable to pump water from the borewells due to erratic power supply," a farmer said. Officials of the agricultural department said there is a need to increase the quantum of water released into the Grand Anaicut canal (GAC) -- which irrigates the Orathanadu area -- from the current 1,500 cusecs to at least 2,000 cusecs.
Meanwhile, the summer paddy which was ready for harvest in areas, including Tiruchenampoondi, Alamelupuram Poondi, Nagathi, Vinnamangalam, have fallen to the ground due to heavy rains. "We have to spend more for harvesting the fallen crop as it would take three hours for machines to harvest one acre, as compared to around one hour of time taken for harvesting dry crop per acre, said Raj, a farmer from Tiruchenampoondi said.