No Water For Crops In Karnataka's Sugarcane Belt

Mandya: Usually, the fertile sugarcane belt of Mandya is a feast for the eyes with green sugarcane and brilliant green paddy. But water scarcity this year means that it was not worth planting much of the January paddy - and the farmers who went ahead with sugarcane are watching their crops dry in the field.

The Srirangapatna and Pandavapura region, close to the river Cauvery, usually produce about 10 to 12 lakh tonnes of sugarcane in a year. Not this year, though.

Nanjunde Gowda, Secretary, Raitha Sangha told NDTV, "There is no paddy at all. Sugarcane has been affected. I don't remember ever seeing the land empty like this. The KRS dam is just about 15 km away and this area has a history has a 150 year history of irrigation. But this year the situation is so bad."

The authorities are preserving the water in the Krishnarajasagara or KRS dam for drinking purposes and warned the farmers not to plant sugarcane as irrigation water would not be released. Farmers ask - what was the alternative?

Many went ahead and planted sugarcane. An acre of land that would usually produce about 50 tonnes of sugarcane is this year producing about 20 tonnes. Farmers are cutting and selling the drying crop for what they can get.

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Borewells are also being sunk - earlier not so common in this traditionally irrigated area.

One farmer sinking a borewell, Kumar, told NDTV, "We have to go to 300 feet - even though the river is so close by - but still we have to go so deep. It shows how serious the problem is."

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