Delta farmers shed tears over weak North East monsoon

Chennai: The 5-cm rainfall on Saturday - Sunday in the Delta districts brought no cheer to farmers as the below normal rainfall (till date) in the North East Monsoon has generated enough loss already. Labelling it as a poor monsoon, farmer association members demand compensation as their livelihood has been hit.

The majority of the farmers who were involved in direct sowing of paddy 50 days ago are tormented as the main sources of water – from the Mettur dam and North East monsoon rains – have ditched the fraternity, leaving no hopes of a good produce this year.

The scenario is glaring as farmers in saline regions see fewer saplings in a square meter against the usual number planted. G. Balasubramanian (54) from Vedaranyam of Nagapattinam had planted paddy seeds on October 20 expecting that the rains would commence by the month end. The monsoon was delayed and being not sufficient till date, it has affected his crop. “It is raining for two days, but what is the use? There are no sufficient saplings. We have 16 – 25 saplings in a square meter against the 100 we experience in a good monsoon,” said Balasubramanian, who is cultivating paddy in 4 acres.

Paddy cultivation, which takes 135 days, would need rainfall in all the stages, especially in the first stage (at least 2 cm in the initial 25-40 days). Agricultural land retains no moisture as Cauvery water supplied through Mettur water was stopped 20 days ago.

“I planted the seeds 50 days ago. Rainfall is necessary to complete the process of replanting the saplings, taking out the weed and fertilising in the initial 40 days. A majority of us still could not do any of these,” said Cauvery Dhanapalan, a paddy farmer from Thiruvarur.

As a majority of delta farmers cultivates paddy this season, seasonal rains decide their produce as only a meagre 20 percent of them rely on bore wells.

“The number of rainfall days is drastically reduced from 56 days to 13 now. It is a massive loss for the farmers from Thiruvarur and Thanjavur who were involved in direct sowing in August,” said A.P Ravindran, State Secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers association. “Each farmer should be given compensation of Rs 30,000 from the Drought Relief Fund and crop insurance,” Ravindran suggested.