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Seedbeds in AP on death bed
Paddy seedbeds are under the verge of getting dried up due to lack of water. The rich and fertile paddy fields along the Eluru Canal in Bapulapadu mandal of Krishna district wore a deserted look on Thursday, as there was no water for the second consecutive year.
Kakulapadu (Krishna): Paddy seedbeds are under the verge of getting dried up due to lack of water. The rich and fertile paddy fields along the Eluru Canal in Bapulapadu mandal of Krishna district wore a deserted look on Thursday, as there was no water for the second consecutive year.
When the government started Eruvaka on July 6, promising sufficient water for the season, farmers started cultivation. They have sowed seedbeds and prepared the fields for transplantation. Forty days later, the fields remain as they are, while the seedbeds dried up. Located just two kilometers away from the Eluru Canal that starts near Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada and travels for 65 kilometers, the fields have no water.
The 1.15 lakh acres of land under this canal spread over Krishna and West Godavari districts did not get water for cultivation for the second consecutive year. “The Ministers and officials make tall claims about release of water into canals, but practically there is nothing,” lamented Federation of Farmers’ chairman Yerneni Nagendranath.
He accused the officials of projection more water for Krishna delta, drawn from both Krishna and Godavari rivers, even though there is no water for the fields. “The statistics shown on the paper have come as an advantage for the upper riparian States to cut into the Andhra Pradesh share of water from both Krishna and Godavari rivers,” he rued.
Nagendranath, along with farmer associations’ leaders M V S Nagi Reddy, Jalagam Kumara Swamy and Kolanukonda Sivaji visited the paddy fields under Bapulapadu mandal on Thursday. “The Eluru Canal requires 1650 cusecs of water to cultivate 1.15 lakh acres in its ayacut. Whatever water is released into the canal is not reaching the fields as the flow is at lower level than the fields,” Nagendranath said.
Kakulapadu village, which is part of Bapulapadu mandal, is the native village of the ruling party’s Telugu Rythu Krishna district unit president Chalasani Anjaneyulu. The 800 plus acres of fertile cultivable land in this village remains dry and the seedbeds raised in some fields using the groundwater bore wells too are getting dry. The irony is that the farmers, who have switched over to the dry crops and sowed black gram are the most worried lot now.
“Some of the farmers have sown black gram now. They are worried as the forecast predicts heavy rains in the first week of September,” Srinivasa Rao, a local farmer said. He added that they have lost two crops due to lack of water and are now set to lose black gram if it rains in the next week.
