Despite good rains, drought stares at dist

Despite the water level in the KRS dam reaching the maximum and rainfall being almost at par with the expected average, drought situation is staring at the district.

Joint Director for Agriculture Lokesh said, even though the overall rainfall this monsoon has matched the expected average, the total number of rainy days have decreased. “A day is considered as a ‘rainy day’, if the rainfall in a particular region on that day exceeds 2.5 mm,” he explained.

Even though there was a delay in the KRS dam getting filled to the brim, farmers depending on the dam for their water needs are happy. But, the same cannot be said about farmers depending on non-irrigated lands.

The Agriculture department has set a target for sowing in 2,06,650 hectares of lands in the district, this monsoon. However, sowing has been completed in just 80,450 hectares — 38.93 per cent achievement. While, farmers in parts of Srirangapatna, Pandavapura, Mandya and Maddur are busy sowing either sugarcane or paddy, those in parts of Nagamangala, Malavalli and K R Pet are still waiting for rains.

Lokesh said, 40 per cent of sowing has been completed on irrigated lands in just 25 days after releasing water in canals, whereas the achievement has been just 28 per cent on dry lands in three months.

He said, the total rainfall in the district so far, this year, has been 340.10 mm against the expected average of 346.6 mm. Last year 305 mm of rains had been received during the corresponding period.

“The rainfall in the months of June and July have matched the expected average. But, they were not uniformally spread over the month. While it rained heavily on a few days, there was no rainfall on the rest of the days,” he said.

He said, there was no scarcity of both seeds and fertilisers in the district. “If there is further demand, steps will be taken to procure more seeds and fertilisers,” he added.