Tamil Nadu: Declare Delta drought-hit, demand farmers

TIRUCHY: Since the drought situation has been aggravating due to El Niño, farmers appealed to the state government to declare the Delta as a drought-hit region and announce a special package for samba cultivation as kuruvai failed.

The farmers pointed out that the failure in the release of water from Mettur on its customary date resulted in the shrinking of kuruvai cultivation acreage to less than 2 lakh acres, and around 5 lakh MT paddy production would be less this time, as per analysis.

Since Kuruvai failed due to drought conditions due to failure of water release from Mettur and the impact of El Niño, the state government should immediately declare the delta as a drought-hit region and provide proper compensation.

Meanwhile, the samba season has already commenced with the support of groundwater for irrigation; the state government should immediately announce a special samba package and release the funds immediately.

“The farmers are receiving just Rs 4,000 per acre under both kuruvai and samba special packages since 2016 and this amount is inadequate due to the soaring prices of inputs and other fertilisers, and so, the state government should revise the amount to Rs 8,000 per acre, which would compensate the production cost,” said Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers Protection Association.

He also sent a representation to the Chief Minister, C Joseph Vijay, appealing to announce the special samba package during the current assembly session under 110 rule.