Khammam: The Telangana state government plans to promote drip irrigation in a big way to help overcome the depleting groundwater table and deficit rainfall.
To achieve this, the government has offered the drip irrigation system on subsidy, which can be availed by farmers on producing copies of the title deed of the land.
By the end of August, all the 10 districts in Telangana have recorded deficit rainfall, the worst being Nalgonda (-37%), followed by Adilabad, Nizamabad and Medak (-36%), Ranga Reddy (-29%), Warangal and Karimnagar (-24%), Khammam (-24%), Hyderabad (-21%) and Mahbubnagar (-23%). The average rainfall deficit in Telangana comes up to -27%, according to the officials.
This has only worsened the woes of the farming community as it has resulted in a 0.47 m fall in the groundwater levels from June to August as compared to last year's data for the corresponding period.
In August 2013, the average metres depth of water below ground level (mbgl) stood at 8.94 metres in the 10 districts. However, by the end of August 2014, it has plummeted to 9.56 metres (a difference of -0.62 metres).
Drip systems are usually the best choice for watering to the crops, because they give you perfect control over how much water each plant gets. P. Chakrapani, irrigation systems expert, said that 40 to 70 per cent of water can be saved if drip system is used.
