Amid heatwave and extended dry spell, Haryana farmers are finding it difficult to protect their crops from weather conditions as the power supply to feeders has been curtailed to five hours.
Farmers said the electricity supply of five hours to agriculture feeders is insufficient as they are depending on tube well water to keep their crop alive.
Sugarcane and vegetable growers are demanding that the electricity supply to agriculture feeders in their belts be increased immediately.
Farmers said the power supply to agriculture feeders has been curtailed to five hours from previous eight.
They claimed of spending on diesel pumps to keep their crops alive as day temperature currently remains above 40 degrees Celsius and most of the crops, especially sugarcane, require one flood irrigation every week.
“It is very difficult for the farmers to save their crops as five hours of electricity supply is not enough to even irrigate one acre,” said BKU Tikait’s Haryana president Ratan Mann.
“Most of the farmers are worried as tube well irrigation is the only way to protect their crops and the poor power supply has added to their woes,” he said while demanding the power supply to agriculture feeders be increased to at least 10 hours.
{{/usCountry}}“Most of the farmers are worried as tube well irrigation is the only way to protect their crops and the poor power supply has added to their woes,” he said while demanding the power supply to agriculture feeders be increased to at least 10 hours.
{{/usCountry}}Mahender Singh, a vegetable grower from Ladwa in Kurukshetra also expressed his concerns, saying that vegetables need irrigation every third day, otherwise the crop will dry up. “Due to the poor electricity supply, we are unable to irrigate our tomatoes and capsicums regularly,” he added.
District-level officials of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam said the electricity supply to the agriculture feeders has been fixed at five hours, but they also provide unscheduled supply to the feeders if they are issued directions.
A sugarcane farmers’ leader, Kaushik, said he has already written to additional chief secretary to power department PK Dass, seeking his intervention as there are around seven lakh acres under sugarcane and vegetable cultivation. “If the power supply is not improved in the next couple of days, this will cause a huge loss to the farmers,” he added.
A senior officer of the power department, pleading anonymity, said the electricity supply to agriculture feeders has been curtailed to five hours following reports that the farmers started paddy sowing ahead of the official schedule of June 15.