Witness of Telangana K. Palanisami has refuted the argument of Andhra Pradesh that the paddy crop duration in the Krishna Delta area is considered very low at 122 days by Telangana for assessing the crop water requirement while the actual duration is 140 days to 150 days or even more.
The witness, who worked as Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute at ICRISAT in the past, appearing for Telangana before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal hearing the case of water allocation between Telangana and AP was cross-examined on Monday by senior advocate appearing for AP R. Venkataramani. The cross-examination resumed after a gap of over four months.
Asked whether the practice followed in the Krishna Delta zone, where paddy grown has duration of above 140 days, was in contrary to the crop water requirement recommended by the witness, for 122 days maximum, Mr. Palanisami explained that the recommended varieties of longer duration in the Krishna Delta (Zone) and short duration varieties in Southern Telangana Zone were “indicative of water surplus and water scarcity status of the two regions, respectively”.
To another question that even the Vyavasaya Panchangam (Agriculture Almanac) of 2017-18 had recommended that paddy varieties have crop duration of 150 days for the Krishna Zone, Mr. Palanisami reasoned that it was not a good strategy to go for longer duration varieties on the grounds that yield advantage of growing longer duration was very less, apart from enhancing water requirement. The long duration varieties also incur more cultivation expenditure, when short duration varieties with high yield were available.
The Telangana witness further stated that maximising productivity should always be linked to the quantum of water used. Since longer duration crops would consumer more water, the productivity per unit of water needs to be compared with the short duration varieties, he said in response to a query that farmers in the Krishna Zone mostly prefer the longer duration varieties in Kharif for maximising productivity.
