Water released to NSP left canal; alternative crop plan adopted

According to Irrigation officials, 4,000 cusecs of water would be released to the NSP left canal for 10 days to save the crops taken up by the farmers

Nalgonda: As per the decision of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, water was released to the left canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) for protection of crops.

NSP engineers released the water to the left canal of NSP by pressing a button in the control room. The current water level in the project was 525 feet and current storage of water in the project was 159 tmc as against the gross storage of 312 tmc.

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According to Irrigation officials, 4,000 cusecs of water would be released to the NSP left canal for 10 days to save the crops taken up by the farmers. For the second round, water would be released to the left canal again after 20 days, they said.

When MLAs from Nalgonda district brought the issue to his notice, the Chief Minister had instructed officials for release of water to the left canal to save the crops in the ayacut. There were 3.7 lakh acres of ayacut under the left canal of NSP in Nalgonda and Suryapet districts.

Due to delay in releasing water to the NSP left canal, the area of cultivation did not cross 80,000 acres and was taken up under bore wells by the farmers in an ayacut area. Paddy cultivation was taken up in 70,000 acres and cotton in 10,000 acres. Farmers have not taken up cultivation of any crop in over 52,000 acres in the NSP ayacut area in the district.

To increase the cultivation area to the full level in the ayacut, agriculture officials were working on an alternative crop plan to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of rainfed crops including red gram, green gram, jowar, green chilli and sugarcane.

Speaking to the media, Nagarjuna Sagar MLA Nomula Bhagath said the release of water to the NSP left canal was not taken up as per the schedule like earlier years due to the deficit rainfall in Krishna basin. Farmers took up cultivation of crops depending on bore-wells. However, the deficit rainfall hit them, and to save crops, the State government had decided to release water to the left canal.

District Agriculture Officer Sravan Kumar said they had prepared an alternative crop plan exclusively for NSP ayacut farmers. Agriculture Officers were trying to create awareness among ayacut farmers to take up cultivation of rainfed crops instead of leaving agricultural fields without taking up cultivation of any crop, he said, adding that they were also creating awareness on judicious use of the water released to the left canal of NSP.