Rain plays hide and seek in Chikkaballapur

The quantity of rain has been decreasing in the district from the last ten years. Bengaluru, situated at a distance of 60 km, gets good rain every year. But the district is not that lucky.

According to the statistics of Agriculture Department, the district should get a minimum of 731.3 mm of rain per year. But six taluks of the district are not getting the rain as expected. These taluks hardly get 400-500 mm of rain a year. Farmers, who are dependent on rain for agriculture, have to sink borewells in their fields to carry out their agricultural activities. Lakes and tanks have also gone dry. Borewell is the only source of water.

The reason for lack of rain is not yet clear. Generally, monsoon season begins in June and July in other parts of the State. But there will no sign of monsoon in the district during this time. The rain starts slowly. But it will not be of much help for agriculture, the farmers said.

Siddappa, a farmer, said that the farmers had received a setback in 2002-03 when drought had engulfed the region. Drinking water problem was severe in both rural and urban areas. The present condition is no different. The water problem has become severe due to lack of rain, he added.

An Agriculture Department officer said crops will be affected if the district, which generally gets less rain every year, receives heavy rain. It will destroy crops cultivated on thousands of acres of land, he stated.

According to the statistics, the district has been rarely getting good rain. Between 2001 and 2015, the district received sufficient rain only once or twice. The rain had crossed the limit of 800 mm in 2004, 2008 and 2010. It had not touched even 500 mm level in 2002 and 2003. Then, the farmers had faced a lot of difficulties, the officer said.

Rain is very less in Bagepalli and Gudibande taluks while the forest areas get good rain generally. The rain will be restricted to urban areas, but not the rural areas, he added.

This year, the district has received a rainfall of 446.1 mm till August 27. Last year, the district had received 345.9 mm rain by this time. Though the quantity of rain is more than that of last year, the sowing activities have been affected at some places.

The details of sowing activities in the district are as follows: Ragi in 818 hectares against the targeted 4,850 hectares, maize- 51,380 hectares against the 55,300 hectares, tur-7,958 hectares of 9,000 hecatures, groundnut-18,929 heactares of 28,330 hectares.

The target is to sow all crops on 1,54,000 hectares of land. But so far, crops have been
sown on only 1,25, 465 hectares. In this, sowing has been completed in 11,813 hectares of irrigated land out 15,14,629 hectares and  1,13,652 hectares of dry land out of the total 1,39,371 hectares.
DH News Service