There seems to be no end to Ere Gowda’s worries this harvest season. The 56-year-old farmer from Pandavapura taluk in Karnataka’s Mandya district has spent Rs 1,20,000 to cultivate paddy in his four-hectare field in Shadanahalli village. The crop is to be harvested in June. But water shortage has dampened his hopes of a good yield.
“Paddy fields need good irrigation a month before harvest, failing which the yield will be very less,” Gowda explained. “The authorities have not released water from Krishna Raja Sagar dam for the last 20 days. If it goes like this I will incur heavy losses. I am hoping the government will release water now as this is election time.”
KB Raghavendra of Karasavadi village in Mandya taluk said only a miracle could save his paddy crop now. “I was hoping for a good yield this year but water shortage has hit me hard,” he said.
The receding water level in Krishna Raja Sagar dam in the Cauvery basin has left farmers such as Gowda and Raghavendra high and dry. On Thursday, they received another blow when the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka government to release at least two thousand million cubic feet of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Sharing the Cauvery water has for long been a bone of contention between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with both states even witnessing violent protests. Now, after the Supreme Court’s order, it has started to feature in the ongoing campaign for the Assembly election, scheduled for May 12, especially in the Mysuru and Mandya districts. While both the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have claimed that Karnataka is in no condition to follow the directive, at least one major farmers’ group has threatened agitation. But farmers say water scarcity is far from their only problem. It is but one aspect of farm distress, which the campaigners have largely ignored.
Mandya is the agricultural hub of Karnataka. It is popularly known as the sugar city for its vast sugarcane fields. But farmers here also cultivate ragi, rice, horse gram, tur dal, cowpea, green gram, black gram and oilseeds. The district gets water from Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir as well as Hemavathi reservoir in neighbouring Hassan. They are among four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin, the others being Kabini in HD Kote district and Harangi in Kodagu.
Mandya district saw over 200 farmer suicides in 2015 and 2016 because of drought and debt.
Becoming a talking point
Fearing backlash from farmers, the Congress government said it will not release water to Tamil Nadu as the Cauvery basin reservoirs do not hold enough water to even meet the state’s own needs. “We will inform the Supreme Court about the receding water levels in our dams,” Water Resources Minister MB Patil said.
According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, the combined live storage – the usable quantum of water – in the four reservoirs is under 10 million cubic feet, which is barely enough to meet the drinking water needs of areas dependent on the Cauvery for 15 days.
The Bharatiya Janata Party also spoke against releasing water to Tamil Nadu. “How can we give them water at a time when our people do not have water to drink?” the party’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa asked. “Crops such as sugarcane and paddy are drying due to water shortage.”
The Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha threatened to launch an agitation if the state government complies with the Supreme Court order. “Our farmers are fighting for Cauvery water to save their crops,” the organisation’s leader G Madegowda was quoted as saying by The Times of India. “How can the irrigation authorities release water to Tamil Nadu when they are denying water to us? We will launch an agitation if the government agrees to release water.”
‘Left to fend for themselves’
In the early stages of this campaign farm distress received little attention, with the competing parties focusing on development broadly and issues of identity. The Supreme Court’s order has changed the discourse, but not as much as the state’s farmers hoped.
“We are facing many problems. Water scarcity, debts incurred due to crop losses, threat of loan recovery from banks and the collapse of cooperative societies,” said Chaluve Gowda, a farmer in Pandavapura. “These issues never figured in election campaigns. Congress, Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party are talking only about garnering Vokkaliga votes.”
The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) are the dominant parties in the region. They are engaged in a direct fight on all eight seats under Mandya Parliament constituency.
The Vokkaliga, land-owning peasants who are widely believed to form 11% of Karnataka’s population, have a strong presence in Mandya. They traditionally support the Congress or the Janata Dal (Secular).
In Hulikere village, about 10 km from the Mandya district headquarters, farmers said water scarcity, debt and crop diseases have left them without hope. The village receives water from Krishna Raja Sagar dam through the 2.8-km long Hulikere Tunnel, which was constructed in 1931. “We haven’t got water for last 20 days,” said a local farmer who goes by Lokesh. “The tunnel is dry. Our crops are wilting.”
This season, Lokesh cultivated tomatoes in his one-hectare field after taking a loan of Rs 30,000 from a moneylender. “Water scarcity and some rare disease have almost destroyed the tomatoes,” he said. “I am not sure I will get even Rs 10,000 back. I don’t know how I will repay the debt.”
He does not “believe in political parties” and will not vote this time. “They don’t have time to address our problems,” he complained. Then why should I involve myself in their activities. I don’t want to waste my time.”
In Pandavapura, Ere Gowda said the closure of cooperative societies and the government’s failure to ensure minimum support price for their produce has made farmers’ lives difficult.
“Pandavapura Sahakari Sakkare Karkhane is on the verge of closure,” he said, referring to a cooperative sugar factory in Pandavapura. “It ensured a good price for sugarcane farmers as compared to private sugarcane factories. The government is not taking any action to revive it and, unfortunately, it has not become a campaign issue in this election. I am wondering why political parties are reluctant to raise the issue of minimum support price.”
In 2006, the MS Swaminathan Committee recommended a minimum support price of 50% above the cost of production.
The farmer rights activist Chukki Nanjundaswamy agreed that the agrarian crisis is not a campaign issue this election. She argued that both ruling and opposition parties are avoiding the subject because they cannot offer solutions to farmers’ problems. “Karnataka witnessed a spate of farmer suicides in 2015 and 2016, but it has now become a non-issue for the political parties,” she said.
The activist said farmers have no choice now but to take the matters in their own hands. They should start by rethinking their cropping preferences. “Political parties will talk only about caste issues to win elections,” she added. “Farmers have to fend for themselves.”