Commercial cultivation of ginger gaining popularity in parts of Mysuru district is impacting the groundwater table, adding to the water woes in the rural hinterland in a year of drought.
The water-intensive crop, which is grown mainly in H.D. Kote, Hunsur, Periyapatna, and Nanjangud taluks, is gaining popularity owing to a spike in the price.
The cultivation is fuelled by contract farming in which the land is leased by the local farmers to contractors from Kerala for an attractive commission.
But the economics of ginger apart, the authorities are waking up to the harsh reality of depleting water table in a region where groundwater is the only source for nearly 800 villages in the district. Hence, the administration is planning to takeover the borewells being used to irrigate ginger fields.
The proposal is significant as there are 1,210 villages in Mysuru district of which only 188 have surface water — supplied either from the Cauvery or the Kabini — as the source. In the rest of the villages, borewells are the only means. “If public borewells go dry and we find water being flushed to irrigate ginger cultivated on private land, we will takeover those borewells with the help of Revenue authorities and the local gram panchayat,” said Manjunath, Executive Engineer in charge of water works in the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat.
Ginger is cultivated on nearly 10,000 acres, spread across the four taluks, and the acreage is increasing, which will impact groundwater table and compound water scarcity significantly.
The groundwater level is below 500 feet in most places in the region and many of the existing borewells that pumped water from 150 feet to 200 feet have gone dry. “We are re-drilling such borewells and have managed to strike water at about 600 feet,” said Mr. Manjunath.
While the Agriculture Department said there is no law under which ginger cultivation could be stopped, B.G. Prakash of the College of Horticulture said drip irrigation should be adopted instead of flushing the field which results in runoffs and waste of precious water.
