Crops dry up as pumpsets fall silent

KARIMNAGAR: The agricultural sector, especially in the Telangana region, is crippled due to long power cuts. Farmers are getting power supply only for four hours in a day, and there is no hope of irrigation water supply from Sriram Sagar project in view of less inflows into the reservoir. Most of the farmers in the region are depending on wells for irrigation. Prolonged power cuts make it impossible to run motors and draw sufficient water from borewells and open farm wells. Besides, groundwater level too is depleting.In upland areas like Sircilla and Husnabad, paddy cultivators have been hit badly and crop in nearly 50 percent of the acerage started withering away for want of sufficient water. A Laxma Reddy from Koheda mandal said he cultivated paddy in two acres, but half of it dried up. The impact of power outages is visible more in Husnabad, Koheda, Chigurumamidi and Sircilla mandals.