With withering crops, farmers hopes too dry up

Nizamabad: Earlier, if it was the hailstorm which inundated crops and brought tears to the farmers, it is not the turn of the blazing Sun in the hot summer, which resulted in the withering away of their crops. The ground water resources have depleted and the bore wells gone dry and there is acute shortage making it difficult for farmers to irrigate their crops. The weather conditions are not at all favourable to farmers.

As a result, the farmers of Kamareddy and Nizamabad are facing immense hardships in saving their crops. Already they have spent thousands of rupees on sowing and cultivation. They are an extremely worried lot and some of them even committed suicide unable to cope with the losses. They mobilized resources from various sources and are now neck deep in debts.

It may be recalled that several hundreds of farmers committed suicide due to the severe drought which hit both the districts. Recently, the suicide of a farmer in Kamareddy town by hanging himself on the tank bund has sent shock waves across the district. The water in the ponds is also drying up. The position of the farmers has become extremely precarious.

During this season, crops were sown on 1.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land on Kamareddy and paddy crop was sown on 35,000 acres of land. However, water is evaporating at a extremely fast rate in the unbearable hot climate and the available water is not at all sufficient to meet the requirements of irrigating the large area of crops. Moreover, paddy needs more quantities of water.

Presently, paddy, maize and groundnuts are being cultivated in Kamareddy and Nizamabad districts. Farmers are using bore wells extensively to water the crops as other sources of water are drying up. In Nizamabad, paddy crop has been sown across 75,461 hectares of land in Varni, Kotagiri, Bodhan, Ranjil, Navipet, Dichpalli, Maklur, Nandipet, Dharpilli, Bhimgal, Sirikonda, Mopal and Nizamabad Rural mandals.

Speaking to The Hans India in Kamareddy town on Monday, a farmer M Saianna poured out his woes. He said that the crops which came to yield started withering away due to the extremely hot weather this summer.

At a time when they were planning to sell their grains and make profits, this development has come as a bolt from the blue, he lamented. He said that he had spent a lot of money and now wondering as to how he could repay his debts. He said that the state government should compensate them for the losses.

Another farmer from Kamareddy, Krishnaiah lamented that the crops on his four acres of land which would have been ready for yield within another 15 days withered away suddenly leaving him in the lurch. All the bore wells in his field have dried up, he bemoaned.

K Rajaiah, a farmer from Nizamabad said that he would be forced to commit suicide if the government fails to come to pay compensation and come to his rescue. He said that there was no water in the bore wells. Earlier, he incurred lot of financial losses due to the hailstorm, he added.