Fraught with drought, exodus imminent
Apart from the tragedy that nature has inflicted on them, the farmers also have to contend with a faux pas committed by the officialdom in not including Mundaragi and surrounding villages of Yadgir taluk in the list of drought-hit places.
Of the three taluks in the district, only Shahapur and Surapur have been declared drought-hit. Yadgir taluk has been left out due to an erroneous report submitted by the agriculture department that the taluk has received 120 mm more rain than the average.
Farmer leaders claim that Yadgir taluk is the worst-hit as far as the drought situation is concerned. Barring Yadgir town, no other place in the taluk has either a barrage or a bridge constructed across a river, forcing the farmers to depend on tanks and borewells for their irrigation needs.
With the onset of the rabi season, farmers face the problem of lack of moisture in the soil which is hampering the sowing process for jowar and groundnuts. The fully-grown tur dal, cotton and ‘sajje’ crops face the threat of withering with no rain in sight.
“I have two acres of land and all I could harvest was two quintals of green gram, sown in the monsoon period. I could barely pay for the labour with what I earned from selling the produce,” said Dodda Sabanna, a farmer from Mundaragi. It looks like the rabi crop is all set to be a total disaster, he adds.
“The rabi season will be over in about a week from now. We are sowing the jowar crop with the hope that it will rain in the days to come. Less said the better about the plight of the cattle. There is no fodder for them and we plan to sell off the cattle at throwaway prices,” said Shivappa, a farmer from Belagera village.
Basavaraj Khandre, a Zilla Panchayat (ZP) member from the region, says that they have demanded that an emergency meeting of the ZP be convened to take urgent steps to offset the ill-effects of drought. Khandre said the ZP CEO would be requested to provide jobs to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, to prevent their exodus.
Rs 275-crore loss
Crop cultivation is on in 2.68 lakh hectares of land in the district. There is scarcity of rain in most places, barring a few patches in Shahapur taluk. The crop loss is estimated at Rs 275 crore, said an official on condition of anonymity.
There is a drinking water problem in 136 villages and repair work of borewells and pipelines has been undertaken with the available fund of Rs 5.75 crore. Helplines have been started in the three taluk headquarters.