Medak: Paddy crops dries up due to lack of power supply

Unscheduled power cuts and low voltage have left paddy farmers in parts of Medak struggling to save their crops amid inadequate rainfall and declining groundwater levels. Farmers say crops have dried up and seek 16-18 hours of power daily.

Medak: At a time when the farmers were suffering due to El Nino pattern influenced drought conditions in the State, the government failure in providing power has also had a serious impact on agriculture particularly on paddy.

Let alone the talk of keeping their promise of providing 24-hour power supply to the farming sector, the Congress government could hardly supply 10-hour power, which resulted in drying of paddy crops at many places across Medak. Kurma Mallesham, a farmer from Chelmeda in Nizampet mandal, took up paddy transplantation on six acres since he had three borewells in his field. The farmer had spent nearly Rs 30,000 per acre towards tilling of soil, and purchasing of seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, labour and others until now. However, the paddy on four acres had started drying up due to the water as the government failed in providing power.
Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, Mallesham said that the Transco was claiming that they were supplying power from 5 AM to 5 PM, but actually they were getting just 10-hour supply. He further said the low voltage was also resulting in burning of borewell pumps and starters quite frequently, causing a great loss to farmers.

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Another farmer, Pippiri Narsimhulu of Nizampet said that he took up paddy transplantation in three and half acres by spending Rs 30,000 on an acre. However, he said that the crop on one acre dried up already due to lack of power supply. It is not only the story of Mallesham or Narsimhulu, many farmers across the Medak were reeling under severe crisis due to unscheduled power cuts and lack of quality power supply.
Since the ground water table was also depleting due to lack of rains, the farmers were worried about saving their crops. They have urged the government to supply at least 16 to 18-hour power for next two months to save their crops. Unless, the farmers said that they would suffer huge losses this year. Due to lack of rains and depleting ground water level, the farmers had already lost the hope of even taking the cultivation during the Yasangi as the weathermen had predicted that the El Nino would turn severe and it would have its serious impact until next June.