JOIN USTankers irrigate Kolar farms even in winter
Going by the drying borewells and sinking water-levels in the district, one might wonder if summer has already arrived. It is two months yet for the arrival of summer and if this is the fate of water-availability during winter, summer could be even worse.
It has become inevitable for the farmers to depend completely upon tankers to irrigate their farms. The farming community in the district is resorting to alternate water resources to save their agricultural produce.
Farmers have already transplanted vegetable produce including tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum, etc. But lack of adequate water has proved to be a setback for them. At this juncture, the crops require a lot of water for irrigation and dried-up borewells and sinking water-levels in the tanks and ponds have disappointed the farmers.
The death knell
Lack of water will sound a death-knell to them, since, all the crops would perish due to water scarcity. Youth farmer Manjunath of Ikamballi village in Kasaba hobli, Kolar taluk, has been irrigating his farms with the help of tankers. Tomato crops cultivated on an acre of land requires at least a tanker water.
The farmers are not left with any option, but to resort to this measure. Despite of proving to be a costly affair, the farmers have to opt for this to save their year-long effort from going down the drain. Soon, if a long-term or a permanent irrigation scheme is not implemented in the district, the entire farming community might be forced to either give up agriculture or else, migrate else where. If only the elected representatives or the political leaders, foregoing their party afflations, did something serious in this direction, the farmers will be relieved.
Going by the gravity of the situation, even before it is too late, something has to be done to address the water scarcity problem, opined Shrinivas Gowda, member of the district units of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene, in a press release issued here on Sunday.