A DROUGHT WITHOUT RELIEF

Distress is mounting in Karnataka's farmlands. Pointing to his two-acre plot where his maize crop continues to wither, A. Manjunath, a farmer, laments that whatever harvest he gets will be fit only for fodder now.

- Ajay Sukumaran

In July, when an erratic Southwest monsoon picked up in the hinterlands of Mysuru, it had brought hopes of raising a normal crop. Preparing the farm and sowing it had cost Manjunath Rs 15,000 an acre. If things had gone well, he could have grown 15 quintals of corn per acre. "It'd have fetched nothing less than Rs 25,000 an acre. Now, I won't even get Rs 5,000." Ironically, even as he says this, a faint drizzle descends from the overcast sky in his Ambale village. It can't save Manjunath's crop.

The dry spell in August, the worst in 123 years, has dealt a lethal blow to Karnataka's farmers. "About 50-75 per cent of the standing crop is gone," says Badagalapura Nagendra, leader of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, a farmer's body. "Some horticulture crops survived only because the groundwater level had improved in the last few years."

Karnataka last faced a widespread drought in 2018. The next four years brought plentiful rain, but things have turned grim again this season. About 79 per cent of the state's arable land is drought-prone. In fact, Karnataka has the second-largest area of dry land in the country after Rajasthan. Over the past two decades, says Nagendra, the state has seen 11 drought and four flood years.