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Putnanjama,65, lost her husband Malleshiah two decades ago and ever since she began managing 2 acres of farm land in Andrahalli village of Kolar District to support her family. She grows tomato and ragi, which gave her good returns until a few years ago. She is helped by her son Yogesh A M at the farm.
But since the last 4 years, she is on a continuous break not because her son took over the field, but because it hasn’t rained. She has not grown any crop in the field since the last four years.
“We haven’t sown in the whole season due to scanty rain. Even if we had cultivated vegetables, we would have incurred losses. Our only hope was this monsoon but it also failed. I haven’t seen such a serious drought in my life,” she lamented.
There are several Putnanjammas across the State who are fed up with the rain which has been playing truant for the last one and a half years. But the government is only bothered about the food production.
Several farmers of Tumkur, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur and Bangalore Rural districts with whom Express spoke, expressed their willingness to stop agriculture and switch over to other work in cities. And this year, agricultural activity is so less that many do not have any disposable income in their hand.
This situation has forced them to sell cattle at throw away prices.
Many have kept their field ready hoping rain in the next one week.
According to official data, important crops like Ragi, one of the major cereals, has been sown in less than 10 per cent of the target land or about 43,000 hectares. Same is the case of sunflower, groundnut, horsegram and maize.
According to data from Indian Meteorological Department and karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, during the period June 1 to July 15, 2012, the state recorded 187 mm rainfall as against the normal rainfall of 328 mm with percentage departure from normal being (-) 43 per cent, which is classified as deficit. Perusal of the above figure indicates that the percentage departure of cumulative rainfall for the State is the lowest in the last 42 years.
“Hardly 15 per cent of the total Kharif crop of 75,000 hectare are sown in the state. This is the worst situation and farmers will be put to more distress,” said University of Agricultural Sciences Vice-Chancellor K Narayana Gowda.
Also, the Aridity Index Anomaly indicates that 82 per cent of the geographical area had severe to moderate aridity during the period March 26 to July 15, 2012, covering Bangalore Urban, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Mysore, Mandya, Bellary, Koppal, Raichur, Gulbarga, Bidar, and Yadgir.
Losing every hope with the government, one farmers from Pavagada Taluk of Tumkur district said that nobody is interested to improve and support agricultural activities.
“Politicians are only behind money at every stage. We wish to live a decent life in the city. Even if I find work as a mason in Bangalore, I am ready to shift,” said G Venkatappa of Arasikere in Pavagada taluk of Tumkur district.
Only rich and marginal farmers have invested in bore-wells and have sown crop in their land.
The groundwater level is so low that many farmers have lost money on digging bore-wells.
People have resorted to sand mining from nearby lakes to exploit the situation. With no respite, local villagers work there to earn their livelihood, despite knowing that it is illegal.
Meanwhile, the government is ready with a contingency plan and has sought more drought relief funds. But nothing seem to have reached the villagers. Information from agricultural departments are not flowing on time to Raita Samparka Kendras (RSK).
“We conduct a weekly meeting and update the RSKs accordingly. But we fail to understand why it doesn’t reach the farmers,” said Dr K T Rajendra Prasad, Additional Director of Research at Zonal Agricultural Research Station at Babbur Farm in Chitradurga.
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