NALGONDA : Farmers under the Nagarjunasagar project are worried as the Krishna basin has not recorded any rainfall so far. The current situation is even more worse for farmers as compared to the last two seasons.
Farmers are stressed over whether they would receive irrigation water at the right time, as paddy planting has already started.
Last year, Nagarjunasagar Reservoir water level was 512 feet, but the current water level is 504.50 feet. About 2 million acres are under cultivation through the Nagarjunasagar right and left canals in both the Telugu states. This project also provides drinking water to the twin cities of Hyderabad, including the combined Nalgonda district.
In Nalgonda district, the area under paddy cultivation and the yield have decreased compared to the previous Rabi season due to monsoon conditions.
From 2019 to 2022, the cultivated area increased every year. However, in 2023, the Rabi cultivated area decreased. In the previous Rabi season, paddy was cultivated on 5,56,637 acres, but in 2023 Rabi season, it was cultivated on 4,20,523 acres.The cultivation has decreased by about 1,30,000 acres.
Regarding crop yield, only 8 lakh metric tons of paddy were produced this year, compared to about 1 million metric tonnes produced in the last Rabi season.
A crop holiday has been declared due to lack of water in the Nagarjunasagar project caused by monsoon conditions. As groundwater in the villages decreased and the borewells and openwells dried up, farmers did not even get half of the crops planted in some areas.
Farmers are being supplied water through tankers to preserve the harvested crop, but in some areas, as there is no water even in the newly dug borewells, the dry crops are being fed to cattle. Some people have even burned the dry crops.
Officials expect cultivation in 11,56,000 acres during Kharif
In the last Kharif season, although there was not enough water in Nagarjunasagar reservoir, good rains allowed 11,51,000 acres of paddy, cotton and other crops to be sown.
District Agriculture Officer V Sravan Kumar told TNIE that this time too, there is a possibility of more rains, and about 11,56,000 acres of various crops can be sown. He said that 2,20,000 acres of cotton and 500 acres of paddy have already been planted under borewells and other water sources in Nalgonda district.