First Published : 23 Aug 2009 12:06:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 22 Aug 2009 01:13:21 AM IST
Till early this month, Perugu Ramaiah hadn’t lost his hope. Every day, the 65-year-old farmer of Anantram village would visit his 3.5 acres of fields that raised maize and paddy, in the hope that it would rain. Finally, the crops withered (as across his district of Medak). On August 7, he collapsed in the fields due to hypertension. Four days later, he died in hospital.
Last year, Ramaiah had married off his youngest daughter, spending Rs 3 lakh. Later, he took on lease others’ lands as well, hoping to clear his debts. But, interest on borrowings and medical expenses only pushed him into a debt trap.
Rains did fall in Andhra Pradesh later, but Ramaiah was dead by then. Unofficially, over 150 farmers ended their lives in the last two months. The government, though, maintains not all deaths are drought-driven.
In the rain-fed Telangana and Rayalaseema regions or even along the canal-fed coastal belt, the fields remain parched. Of the total cropped area of 80 lakh acres, sowing during kharif season took place in only 40 lakh acres, and most of the crop is already lost. The loss per district — the state has 23 of them — is in the range of Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore.
Venkat Reddy of Vattikodu village in Nalgonda is used to growing sweet lime orchards in five acres for the last 10 years. The investment per acre comes to around Rs 1 lakh. As the monsoon failed, he dug new borewells, but they too didn’t yield water. That was when he tried to divert water from a nearby borewell, two km away from his field, by offering to pay Rs 10,000 per month. By then, the dry spell totally damaged 300 trees on three acres while 200 trees in the
remaining two acres were partially damaged. He had to cut them.
The plight of groundnut growers in Rayalaseema’s Kurnool and Anantapur districts or the cotton farmer in Karimnagar district is no better. Farmers were happy when the government announced a minimum support price of Rs 3,000 per quintal of cotton, but the entire crop of many withered. When the government announced an MSP of Rs 3,000 a quintal of cotton, Rajaiah of Nachupalli felt happy. But the entire crop of his five-acre village has withered. In Kadapa district, so disgusted was a farmer that he set fire to his banana plantation after it failed owing to poor rainfall.
Such stories abound. Not surprising, given that as many as 1,020 out of the 1,128 mandals have received scanty or deficit rainfall this season. The average rainfall received was only 163 mm as against the normal 368 mm — a 55 per cent deficit.
Take Eevuri Venkatarami Reddy of Nakrekal mandal in Guntur. He borrowed Rs 20,000 at a monthly interest of four per cent. His repayment in the promised four months looks unlikely now that his paddy field has dried up. The drought has forced him to postpone his daughter’s marriage. “My last hope is the chief minister.”
The government has chosen not to declare any district drought-hit. Reason: the CM believes banks refuse funding if an official declaration of drought is made. Yet, he has urged the Centre to sanction an
additional Rs 2,000 crore under the NREGS to provide work to farmers and labourers. For now, this employment scheme and a loan waiver by the state government last year are providing some succour.
(with inputs from bureaux.
vvbalakrishna@epmltd.com,
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