The Central team that visited various villages in Dharwad district on Friday has termed the drought situation in the region as grim.
The Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, R.B. Sinha, who led the team comprising Director of Crop Division of Agriculture Department, Narendra Kumar, and Director of Rural Development, Rekha Chouhan, accompanied by Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad, Rajendra Cholan, and Zilla Panchayat CEO, Sushma Godbole, visited fields in Bammapur and Shiraguppi in Hubballi taluk and Yaraguppi in Kundagol taluk on Friday.
The team members interacted with the farmers and gathered information on the investment made by them. The farmers and Navalgund MLA N.H. Konaraddi told the team that although it had rained since last two days, it would hardly make any impact on the crop, majority of which had already withered away.
The first stop of the team was the four-acre land of Santhosh Abbigeri in Bammapur village where the farmer had invested Rs. 25,000 per acre for cultivating chilli. Barring the edges of the land, there was hardly any chilli crop.
At a little distance away, they saw the stunted growth of groundnut in the 4.28 acre land of Nannesab M. Neelagar where the three-month-old plants did not have any pods at all. In the field of Allahabaksh Bapannavar they saw the almost withered crop of soya bean and stunted growth of cotton plants. In Shiraguppi village, there was hardly any plant in the field of Somappa Shishuvinahalli, where cotton seeds were sown. The team subsequently visited Yaraguppi village, which is facing drinking water shortage.
Grim
Speaking to presspersons at Yaraguppi village Mr. Sinha said that after good rains in May, there was a very long dry spell resulting in all crops getting affected. Soyabean, green gram, cotton, groundnut, chilli and cotton had been badly affected and the situation was very bad.
He said that the team had sought some more information from the administration on the drought and would file a report within 10 days.
