Kharif comes a cropper, rabi rubs it in

Drought-hit tag not enough for Bidar taluk

It is already 15 days since the start of the kharif season and with rain playing truant, a disaster stares in the faces of the farmers in the district.

During the kharif season, lack of sufficient rain meant that the seeds failed to sprout in many places. In other places, the yield was just 25 per cent.

The situation was the worst at Mannalli hobli in the taluk. Some farmers did not care even to sow the seeds. Others failed to reap a good yield, despite having sown the seeds.

Ravi Siddapura, former director of the Bidar Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee, says while favourable conditions would have yielded six to seven bags of urud dal or green gram from an acre, it has plummeted to just two and half acres due to lack of rain.

The yield has been quite low in the Chondi, Chowli, Honnikeri and other shivaras of the district. The crop yield has been negligent in Atival and surrounding villages.

The harvest of urud dal and green gram per acre is less than 25 kg, says Shankareppa Patil of the Naranja Co-operative Sugar Factory. Soyabean and tur dal are among the worst suffering crops, thanks to rain playing hide and seek.

That the farmers have taken loans to invest on the crops makes it that much more difficult for them. Bheemareddy, a farmer, says though Bidar has been declared drought-hit taluk, more needs to be done in the form of providing proper compensation to the distraught farmers.