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    Farmers’ hopes decline with Mettur storage

    As the level of water in the Mettur dam is gradually declining every day, Delta farmers are losing hopes of Samba cultivation. They fear huge losses. Also the present storage is insufficient even to meet the drinking water requirements of the area.

    Farmers’ hopes decline with Mettur storage
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    PR Pandian, Coordinator of the Tamil Nadu All Farmers? Federations

    Thiruchirapalli

    The dejected farmers have made an appeal to the government to at least maintain the present level of water for the safety of the dam so that it could maintain the ground water levels.

    On Tuesday, the water storage level in Mettur was 52.89 feet while it was 54.43 feet on Monday, 55.93 feet on Sunday and 57.37 feet on Saturday. “We are worried about Samba paddy crops which have not attained the desired growth. Usually a healthy crop grows to a height of nearly three feet. This growth is essential for it to face a torrential rainfall in November and December. Unfortunately, this term not even half the height has been attained. The present water level in Mettur seems to affect the entire growth of crops,” says Arupathy P Kalyanam, general secretary of Federation of Farmers Association. The loss is estimated to be between '2,000 crores and '3,000 crores annually. 

    Meanwhile, PR Pandian, Coordinator of the Tamil Nadu All Farmers’ Federations said that the farmers have already lost hopes of Samba after seeing that crops under direct sowing have started withering and it is time atleast to save the dam to leave some moisture in the ground. This can be achieved only if the storage is at least a minimum of 40 feet in the dam. “If the storage comes below this level, the ground would go dry and it would damage the dam,” Pandian said. “And it is necessary to store water for drinking purpose as the dam serves as a water source for around 25 districts,” he said. He stated that there are more than 10 lakh acres in Thanajvur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts under direct sowing and 3 lakh acre land had already raised up to nursery level. “We fear all these will be damaged. The crop insurance by the centre is entitled to give only up to the damage level and so we have been insisting the government to give Rs 25,000 per acre as compensation to the farmers,” he said. 

    Meanwhile, the farmer delegation on Monday had met Ministers O Panneerselvam, Edapadi K Palanisamy and MC Sampath and appealed to them to recommend the centre to declare Tamil Nadu as drought hit. It also demanded a compensation of Rs 25,000 per acre for crop damage. “They assured to take the demands forward and are waiting for an answer from the Csentre,” Pandian said.

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