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Farmers mull paddy crop in drip irrigation mode
After facing the continuous drought for the last five years and uncertainty over the water from Nagarjunasagar canal, a few enthusiastic farmers from the Addanki, Darsi and Parchuru Assembly constituencies are planning to cultivate the paddy in drip irrigation model this season.
Ongole: After facing the continuous drought for the last five years and uncertainty over the water from Nagarjunasagar canal, a few enthusiastic farmers from the Addanki, Darsi and Parchuru Assembly constituencies are planning to cultivate the paddy in drip irrigation model this season.
Jagarlamudi Murali Krishna of Addanki said that the earlier government had failed to provide water through the Nagarjunasagar canal, even though there was water in the dam.
He said that whenever the government releases water, it is not sufficient to the tail-end farmers due to the absorption and evaporation along with the forced opening of channel gates by Guntur district and upper area farmers.
So, he said that they had decided to team up with some of the progressive farmers in the area and try the cultivation of paddy in drip irrigation method, which was done by a farmer in Krishna district for the last couple of years.
He said that he and his friends do not want to wait until the situations turned worse in the district. A zero-budget natural farming expert and water conservation activist, Amar Akbar of Nunna in Krishna district is cultivating paddy on drip irrigation.
He is offering free training and advice to the farmers like Murali Krishna across the state and often visiting their farms to verify the installation is as per the plan. Akbar said that in normal conditions, cultivation of paddy requires 30 lakh litre water per acre. He claimed that he cultivated paddy along with vegetables as internal crops on drip irrigation and used only 5 lakh litre per acre.
He said that he produced twelve 75 kg bags of rice at the end while sending 200 kg vegetables for sale every week. These farmers are forming a group with interested farmers throughout the state and planning to start the cultivation of paddy on the drip irrigation in August.
They claim that the government is mulling over extending subsidy for the drip irrigation system to the paddy farmers also on a pilot and they could get a maximum of 90 per cent subsidy depending on the farmer's category. Interested farmers may contact Akbar at 9966643666 to team up with them and conserve water while producing paddy in an organic way.
-Naresh Nandam
