Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: Agrarian distress is spreading through parts of Thanjavur and Tiruchi districts, gathering speed as farmers realise the full impact of monsoon failure.

The release of water from the Mettur dam on July 28 was significantly later than the usual date of June 12. This delay has caused the failure of the Kuruvai crop to the extent of 30,000 hectares in Thanjavur.

In neighbouring Tiruchi the original target of 6,000 hectares of Kuruvai was missed by a wide margin: “Only 4,224 hectares have been reconciled,” T.Soundiah, the District Collector, explained to The Hindu. Paddy has not been the only casualty of the monsoon failure, according to Mr.Soundiah, who also pointed out that only 610 hectares out of a potential 54,000 hectares are being cultivated under millets.

Farmers depending on pump irrigation have seen marginally more success with Kuruvai than their counterparts who depend on canals. In Thanjavur, 15,000 hectares of Kuruvai were cultivated using pump irrigation.

However, even pump irrigation is no guarantee of sufficient water. A farmer K.Sundararajan who cultivates 10 acres of paddy in Thanjavur has pumps and bore-wells and is also not far from the river bank. Yet he says, “I have been unable to plant Kuruvai this season and have only got enough water for my animals to drink.”

In the “rice bowl” of Tamil Nadu farmers are left with intensifying distress. They are being constricted by a wide array of deteriorating circumstances including water shortages, power shortages, inaccessibility of loans for farm inputs, and barriers against mechanisation.
Optimism about the next round of cultivation for the Samba crop is fragile.

The Secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, S.Ranganathan, explained, “If we get the normal amount of water and it is released on time – on June 12 – we can expect up to seven months of continuous water through the canal system. However, this year we can only expect water for 1.5 days in every 10 days.”

Insufficient power supply

Power supply for pumps is also insufficient, according to J.Varadarajan, who owns 50 acres of farmland in Devangudi, Thanjavur district. Normally he uses 4 bore-wells, each of which can irrigate up to 15 acres if continuous power is provided.

“Given the fluctuation in power supply, we are only able to irrigate about 5 acres per well,” Mr.Varadarajan noted. “I have also received no water via the canals, and my dependence on the bore-wells is even more,” he said. However this dependence has led to an imbalance in the pH of the soil which potentially reduces the yields of all farms in the vicinity.

Farmers are struggling to combat the drop in yields by increasing input productivity. In part, this is driven by finance for fertilisers, pesticides and equipment being completely beyond the reach of small and medium farmers. P.Manikavasakam and V.Jivakumar, who cultivate five acres and one acre of land respectively, explained that under the AIADMK administration they might have got a loan of Rs.9,000 with an acre of land as collateral. “At present we can only expect to receive a loan of Rs.1,000 to 2,000, which is barely sufficient to finance transplantation of paddy,” Mr.Manikavasakam rued.

Collectivised approach

Mr.Ranganathan makes a strong case for a collectivised approach to agriculture. Pointing to a sharp drop in agricultural yield in the lands that he farms, he said, “The solution lies in increased mechanisation, which has however not gained momentum in the Delta region. Given that threshers, for example, cost Rs.18-20 lakh, the entire village must pool its land as collateral and obtain finance.”

However, the interest in collective action is being thwarted by the diminishing prospects of those who remain in agriculture. They face the grim reality of having to choose between watching their margins get squeezed as their indebtedness grows and forsaking the lands that their families have cultivated for generations.

Labels: Cauvery, delta, fertiliser, Kuruvai, mechanisation, Mettur dam, power, pump irrigation, rice bowl, Thanjavur, Tiruchi, water

# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 7:25 PM