Patches of inexperienced adopted by patches of brown dominate the scene by the villages of Hoskote taluk, a serious horticultural crop provider to Bengaluru, located roughly 35 kilometres from the town centre. Cabbage, tomato, sunflower, marigold, and maize are among the many crops grown within the fields adjoining to the freeway, however on a scorching March morning, half the fields are dry and barren.
While drought has hit the consuming water provide to Bengaluru, the dry season affecting the horticulture belt across the metropolis has burnt a gap within the pockets of customers within the final yr as costs of greens soar, with withering crops and the resultant provide crunch.
The Hindu visited this belt — Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural district, a few taluks in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts — to learn how badly agriculture is affected and whether or not what Bengalureans are shelling out for his or her greens is reaching the farmers who’re struggling to maintain their crops alive.
Farmers Krishnamurthy and his spouse Varalakshmi converse on the water disaster in Chickballapur district.
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BHAGYA PRAKASH Ok.
Failed borewells
The locals say Nandagudi and Sulibele hoblis in Hoskote are essentially the most water-deprived areas within the taluk. The close by lake, which, when crammed up, offers irrigation, has now fully dried up. Their solely different supply of water is the borewells. But with the monsoons failing in 2023 and most borewells going dry, many farmers sank extra borewells of their fields, solely to seek out no water.
B.N. Anand is one such farmer. “I got two borewells — going down 1,150 feet and another 1,200 feet — dug up in my field this time. Both of them failed, and after having spent ₹7 lakh on borewells and motors, I could not get even one extra drop of water,” Anand lamented. Apart from some patches of maize and banana, his huge area of over 10 acres barely had any indicators of greenery. He mentioned cultivation had dropped by about 50% in Hoskote.
“Across Hoskote, lakes have dried up, and borewells are failing. We are major producers of vegetables, flowers, and, most prominently, ginger. In a good season, the farmers around here cultivate ginger on at least 40-50 acres. This time, the crop is spread over hardly 25 acres. This is the same case with all other crops,” Anand defined.
While water tankers have grow to be a part of on a regular basis dialog in Bengaluru, some farmers are additionally spending a small fortune on them to save lots of their standing crops. Venu B.C. has cultivated inexperienced grapes on two acres in Sulibele hobli. After his borewells failed, he’s getting 4 tanker hundreds day by day.
“Usually, in summer, I get around 15 tonnes in yield and during the rainy season, I get around 25 tonnes. This time, I will be lucky if I get around 10 tonnes. If I do not get water tankers, then I will lose even that. I pay ₹550 for one water tanker, and I need four of them in a day. The fruits will not ripen or get their colour without water. The bunches will also be loose (fewer grapes in the bunch) without enough water,” Venu mentioned.
Most farmers throughout the belt have farm ponds (open sumps) of their fields the place they gather no matter water they’ll get from their borewells or the rains. Water comes into some borewells solely as soon as in two or three days, and the farmers retailer water at such occasions. This is the one water supply for Ramakrishna, a farmer in Sidlaghatta taluk in Chikkaballapur district. In his 20 acres of land, he has cultivated tomatoes in simply ten guntas (40 guntas make an acre).
“I have so many wells in my field that are all dried up. We used to get water at just 50-60 feet in those wells. My cultivation has gone down year after year as the water availability kept getting worse. For now, with the water I have stored in the sump, I am growing some vegetables and feeding my animals, but if this situation continues, then next year, I will have nothing,” he mentioned. Farmers in Chikkaballapur develop tomatoes, beans, carrots, inexperienced leafy greens, and mulberry for sericulture.
The drying up of borewells has resulted within the lack of crops in Yannur close to Shidlaghatta in Chickballapur district.
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BHAGYA PRAKASH Ok.
The valley dilemma
In distinction to the state of affairs at Hoskote, the lakes in Kolar district, which has a historical past of being vulnerable to drought, are crammed with water, because of the Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley (Ok.C. Valley) venture. Under this first-of-its-kind venture, the sewage water from Bengaluru is handled in two levels and pumped to tanks in Kolar.
Several farmers right here, who provide water to Bengaluru and Chennai, are vehemently against utilizing this handled water to fill their lakes. They imagine that it drastically reduces the standard of the groundwater immediately whereas additionally not directly affecting their crops and inflicting illnesses.
“We do not want this sewage water from Bengaluru unless the government undertakes tertiary treatment of the water,” says Ramu Kalvamanjali, a member of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha’s (KRRS) Kolar wing. He additionally says that regardless of the federal government’s claims that the venture helps recharge groundwater, even the borewells located subsequent to the venture’s path have failed within the district.
An identical venture known as the Hebbala-Nagavara Valley (H.N. Valley) venture is getting used to fill tanks in Chickballapur. Even there, farmers declare the sewage water is one motive for a drop of their yield. They additionally alleged that handled water in such portions has grow to be a breeding floor for pests which might be extremely immune to pesticides and pesticides.
“My flowers and vegetables are infested with highly resistant fungus, thrips and mites. Previously, we could control it with pesticides and insecticides. After this project started, they are proving to be of no use,” claims Srinivas N., a farmer from Ajjavara in Chickballapur.
The Horticulture Department officers say that these claims are usually not verified. “We have told them strictly that the treated water should not be used for agriculture. The Minor Irrigation Department regularly tests all the groundwater samples for contamination, and if anything is found, they will take steps accordingly,” a senior official from the Horticulture Department mentioned.
A ‘krishi honda (pond) at Bhuvanahalli near Hoskote, which farmers have set up to collect water from borewells and ponds and pump to agricultural fields. But it’s dry due to water shortage.
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BHAGYA PRAKASH Ok.
Other elements for provide crunch
A bit away from Sidlaghatta, in a area of marigolds and some inexperienced leafy greens, Krishnamurthy and Varalakshmi, a farmer couple of their 50s, had been ready for the clock to strike three p.m. to activate the drip irrigation system for his or her crops. “We are managing with whatever water we have. All around us, there is a water problem. One in 20 borewells works here. But our life must go on,” they are saying in a barely optimistic tone.
They level out that moisture stress is the primary motive why the output in lots of fields has dropped this yr. “There is absolutely no moisture left in the soil. With this heat (maximum temperature has hovered between 33 – 35 degrees Celsius in the last week), it is difficult for flowers to bloom or to turn into vegetables. Most flowers wither in this heat. Hence, vegetable production has gone down this year, including in my own field,” Krishnamurthy explains.
Among all of the water troubles can be the issue of energy. “Due to weather conditions, the ground needs double the amount of water than usual this year. While borewells are failing, on the other hand there is no constant supply of electricity to pump even the available water,” Srinivas provides.
Money issues
In Bengaluru, within the final couple of weeks, the value of 1 kilo of beans has touched ₹100-120 per kg in retail markets. Carrots are promoting at ₹60-80 per kg, capsicum ₹70-100 per kg, and brinjals are promoting at ₹30-40 per kg. There has been an nearly two-fold leap within the costs of those greens because the starting of this yr.
But none of that is reaching their pockets, say farmers. They say that solely the middlemen are earning money, and their fortunes haven’t modified with the costs going up. “To grow beans on an acre, a farmer needs at least ₹25,000. For tomatoes, he needs ₹4 lakh per acre, ₹2.5 lakh per acre for potatoes, ₹20,000 for cabbage and ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 for an acre of capsicum. Even when the vegetables are selling at their best prices, there is a good chance that the farmers here would not even have broken even here with these costs,” mentioned Narayanaswamy G., normal secretary, Kolar, KRRS.
As for Bengaluru, if there isn’t a good rain this yr, the provision and affordability of greens, fruits, and flowers shall be a nightmare, farmers warn. Many of them have predicted that cultivation of horticultural crops may completely cease within the belt, besides for his or her family functions, with out rain. Even the merchants within the markets keep that if there are not any indicators of rain within the subsequent two weeks, then costs of greens will shoot up additional.
The dryed-up T. Agrahara Lake at Bhuvanahalli close to Hoskote.
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BHAGYA PRAKASH Ok.
Focus on drought resistant crops
The Horticulture Department is urging farmers to decide on drought-resistant crops actively. “When there is no rain, there is not much we can do. We are always telling farmers to choose resistant varieties and practice microirrigation. The amount of water that is used in one month for flood irrigation can be used for one year through drip irrigation,” says Ramesh D.S., director of the Horticulture Department.
Consumers on the different finish of the chain really feel helpless. “Whom do we blame in a situation like this? If the supply is affected at the source level, then it is difficult for the prices of vegetables to remain stable in the market. Like we reduced the use of tomatoes when it reached its all-time high prices, we should probably think of reducing the consumption of all vegetables in the coming days and buy other sources of nutrition like meat,” mentioned Sharada S.Ok., a homemaker from South Bengaluru.
