Bhanjanagar: Insufficient rainfall has triggered drought fears in Bhanjanagar area of Ganjam while two water reservoirs in the area have become dry, leaving little water for farming, a report said.
The pandemic has already broken the economic backbone of farmers while erratic rainfall has spoiled their hopes for paddy harvest this year. Farmlands in hectares of land have become dry while saplings have started wilting.
Lack of water has become a major concern for farmers in the region. They are apprehensive of an approaching drought.
They said over 500 ml rain is necessary for transplantation of paddy saplings. Only 331 ml rain was received from June 1 till date, they said.
Earlier, farmers made use of water of Daha and Baghua reservoirs. Now the water level in the two reservoirs has sharply gone down.
In coming days, water level will further go down. Only 15 percent of water as per its storage capacity is left with Sorada water reservoir, it was said.
Farmers said there is no water in Baghua reservoir and the situation is turning grim. .
Some farmers said, ”Paddy plants are in stress for lack of water. We have raised saplings for transplantation. Protecting the saplings has been too difficult now in this condition.”
Some areas witnessed blight of sprouts while such situation has left the farmers worried.
Farmers said the government makes tall claims about extending all possible help to farming while there have been no step to irrigate land at this critical time.
PNN