Cotton Farmers Draw Canal Water To Save Standing Crops

Adilabad:Cotton farmers in Adilabad district are drawing water from the Mathadi Vagu and Sathnala project canals to save their standing crops amid a shortage of water. They have urged irrigation officials to release water in phases at this critical juncture.

Farmers in Talamadugu mandal have protested against its exclusion from the list of drought-declared mandals in Adilabad district.

Farmers’ association leaders met collector Rajarshi Shah and submitted a memorandum seeking the inclusion of Talamadugu in the drought-affected mandals list. They said Talamadugu was the only one of the district’s 21 mandals not declared drought-affected.

Farmers in Tamsi and Bheempur mandals depend on water released into canals from the Mathadi Vagu irrigation project, while those in Jainad and Bela mandals rely on the Sathnala irrigation project. Irrigation officials attempted to fill the Laxmipur reservoir to supply water to crops in its ayacut.

Some farmers were also found lifting water from the Sathnala project canal.

Are Vittal, a farmer from Pedda Arli village in Bheempur mandal, said standing cotton crops were drying up due to a lack of water. Some farmers were trying to save their crops by using sprinklers and drip irrigation supplied by motor pumps.

He said farmers without access to water could expect barely two quintals of cotton per acre. Vittal urged the state government to provide at least 10 hours of regular power supply to operate motor pumps and irrigate standing crops.

Otherwise, he said, farmers would suffer heavy losses from a sharp decline in cotton yields, with little prospect of second and third pickings during the Kharif season.