Starved of water, the standing agricultural crops in Guntur district face a threat of withering. A disappointing monsoon, and a lakh of tanks or groundwater sources has made the farmers heavily dependent on canal water, for the release of which they are desperately waiting now to save their paddy, cotton and chilli crops.
Many are forced to incur heavy additional expenditure to pump water to their fields from faraway sources. Farmers B. Sambasiva Rao and his father Nageswara Rao, for instance, have been drawing water using diesel engines and pipes from a canal about one kilometre away for their five-acre chilli crop at Narakoduru village near Guntur. ‘‘We need to wet the crop at least 10 times till harvest, and each round costs around ₹25,000,’‘ laments Mr. Sambasiva Rao.
