Pullalarevu Sadasiva Reddy, a sweet lime farmer from the drought-hit Rayalaseema’s Anantapur district, had to bear the brunt of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) associated with a long spell of elections in Andhra Pradesh.
The proposals under the government’s “drought-proof” programme to make available water at subsidised rates for horticulture crops gathered dust as the official machinery was engaged in the election process initially and was later bound by the MCC. A prolonged dry spell too played its part in crashing Reddy’s hopes.
Had the proposals been cleared in time, Reddy as a resident from Mukundapuram under Garladinne mandal would have received water at subsidised prices under the scheme. The government introduced the drought-proof programme which enabled horticulture farmers to get 80% subsidy on each water tanker priced around Rs 800. Now in a feverish bid to protect their withering horticulture crops, farmers are purchasing water at high rates from private sources in Anantapur district.
“All the plantations are just three years old. I grew them against all odds, hoping to harvest the crop in the next two years. But more than 30% of my plants have dried up and I will lose the entire plantation if there are no rains in the next two weeks,” a grief-stricken Sadasiva Reddy told this writer. The plants yield a crop five years after transplantation and Sadasiva Reddy will need to continue to nurture them till then at the cost of Rs 1 lakh per acre.
Since February 15, Reddy has bought 130 tankers of water to save his crop at a cost of Rs 1.3 lakh. All the three borewells he dug in his fields, costing nearly Rs 1 lakh, failed. An embarrassed Sadasiva Reddy was not willing to share information on the volume of debts he is steeped in. There are some farmers in his village with up to 25 borewells to their credit and hardly any of them is working.
The CPI(M) district secretary S Chandrasekhar Reddy, who is leading a protest demanding that the official machinery come to the rescue of the farmers, said spending on water is pushing up production cost by Rs 5 per plant on horticulture crops.
The farmers said diversion of waters from the Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir (PABR) right canal to meet drinking water needs has triggered a water crisis in horticulture this time. At least two and a half TMC should have been released into the PABR canal through 49 major and minor irrigation tanks under the ayacut to meet agriculture needs. But the officials failed to ensure this, they said.
Water is a big business
In an area devoid of irrigation sources and marked by truant rains, the sale of water has become a major component in the cost of production in agriculture. Owners of tankers and wells have a field day due to drought. While a tanker of water costs Rs 150, its transport cost may go up to Rs 1,000 depending on the travel distance from the source to the fields. “Tankers have to come to my fields from Kamalapuram 5-6 km away. So, I pay Rs 800 towards transport cost, plus Rs 150 for water,” says Sadasiva Reddy.
There are a few irrigation projects in the district, such as the Mid Pennar Reservoir (MPR), an extension of the Tungabhadra high level canal, PABR, and Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi which feeds on the backwaters of the Srisailam project on the Krishna river. But the coverage of these projects is very limited, leaving a major portion of agricultural fields to the mercy of unpredictable rains.
The Hans India, citing Andhra Pradesh Satellite Remote Sensing images, reported three years ago that Anantapur shows signs of desertification with sand dunes spread over 12 villages and expanding year-on-year.
Horticulture under government’s focus
The state government massively promoted horticulture crops by introducing drip irrigation with 90% subsidy for growers for revival of economy in the drought-affected Rayalaseema region. Paddy and groundnut are water-intensive crops that failed to withstand in a region faced with recurrent droughts and monsoon failures.
Accordingly, the area under horticulture grew up to 1.81 lakh hectares in the last decade or so, with groundnut fields making way for sweet lime, banana, mango, pomegranate, lemon, jack fruit, etc. Still, groundnut accounts for 90% of agriculture in the district.
State Information and Public Relations Minister Kalava Srinivasulu squarely holds the Election Commission’s hawkish postures responsible for the plight of horticulture farmers. “We as public representatives are bound to end up with petitioning officers on issues confronting the people. We were not allowed to hold reviews with officials and monitor the priority programmes under implementation,” the minister said.
Sanction of subsidy under drought-proof programme is a routine assignment to be executed by officials every year. This time it failed to come up for want of coordination between the government and the administration, thanks to the tussle over the MCC, he added.
Gali Nagaraja is a freelance journalist who writes on the two Telugu states.
Views expressed are the author's own.