Frog wedding held as Siddipet farmers pray for rains

With two frogs being bathed in turmeric paste and made to 'tie the knot' amid chanting of mantras, the ritual saw woman farmers offering water to the frogs while children went around the streets of the villages carrying the newly married couple.

Siddipet: The BG Venkatapur village in Jagadevpur mandal here became witness to the rare ritual of a frog wedding, as farmers in the village, after several years performed the custom while praying for good rains.

With two frogs being bathed in turmeric paste and made to ‘tie the knot’ amid chanting of mantras, the ritual saw woman farmers offering water to the frogs while children went around the streets of the villages carrying the newly married couple.

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The ritual was conducted after intermittent rains in Siddipet left the farming fraternity worried as cotton seeds, which farmers had sown in an extent of nearly 60,000 acres, did not sprout.

Farmers had gone for sowing of cotton seeds as the district received good rains during the first week of June. However, during the last 10 days, the district witnessed rains only in some places, with some mandals witnessing very negligible rain.

The Agriculture department had estimated that the farmers would take up cultivation of different crops in 5.60 lakh acres during the Vanakalam season, which included paddy in 3 lakh acres, cotton in 1.80 lakh acres, maize in 60,000 acres and red gram in 10,000 acres.

However, the farmers took up the sowing of cotton in just 60,000 acres while the rest were waiting for another spell of rain. The farmers are providing water with water guns and sprinklers to save already-sprouted cotton crops while waiting for the rain. Farmers need two packets of cotton seeds, each costing Rs.800, to sow on one acre.

Wherever the cotton seeds did not sprout, the farmers will have to sow again by spending an additional Rs.1,600 on each acre for seeds in addition to the labour charges.

Meanwhile, maize farmers did not take up any sowing so far as they were waiting for the rains. The paddy farmers were also waiting for sowing. Whether the frog wedding will change their fortunes, especially with farmers in Telangana going through tough times of late, is what is on the farmer’s mind.