Crops wither for want of enough water

Crops raised in Ammapettai, Orathanadu, Pattukottai, Peravoorani, Thiruthuraipoondi, Kottur and Keezhvelur areas has started to dry away. Rains in the past two days will never help the crops, it will just add to the damage, said the farmers.  The farmers had been having their fingers crossed ever since the start of this Samba season. In a row for five years, release from Mettur had been delayed and this year it opened only on September 20 and subsequently water was released from the Grand Anicut on September 24. Even after 15 days, water has not reached the tail end areas properly owning to the frugal flow.  Experts said that the water would be able to reach the tail end areas only when 20,000 cuesec were being released. For instance, when water let off to a quantity of 9,000 cusec in the Vennaru and 3000 cusec in Kallanai canal, would reach tail end regions. However, only 12,000 cusec has been released from Mettur and water being released on turns to the Vennaru and Kallanai canal translate to just 5,000 and 1,500 cusec respectively. This is inadequate to reach the tail end areas, they added. With the Cauvery water trickling in, farmers were doubtful whether to continue the farming activities. Already the cultivable area has come down very much below the target. For example, in Thanjavur, the target was 2.62 lakh acres but in reality only 73,600 acres was being cultivated in the Samba season.  Similarly, in Tiruvarur the target was 3.03 lakh acres but only 2 lakh acres has been cultivated through direct sowing. While in Nagapattinam, the target was 3.36 lakh acres but cultivation has been taken up only on 39,000 acres.