The farmers of Manvi are under distress because of their heavy loss of crops due to shortage of rain.
Manvi taluk is declared drought hit by the government among the other 216 taluks in Karnataka. Chandrappa Amaravati, a farmer in Manvi said, “I had sown rice, but because of lack of irrigation facilities, there was no production at all. The main reason is no rainfall. I did not receive any money from the government yet. My land is all empty without any vegetation. I had to sell my cattle as well because there was no fodder to give them to eat.” The farmers in Manvi are migrating to cities like Bangalore in search of work to feed their families.
The relief fund is nothing compared to the loss they have faced.
Madlapur, a village in Manvi has seen a huge loss in the crop production. Most of the people in this village are farmers and rely in harvesting and the money they get out of it.
Sudharshan, the Panchayat Development Officer of Madlapur village said, “The farmers of this village mainly grow paddy, cotton, red gram. This year there was a heavy loss in all the crop production. There was approximately 80% loss in cotton production and has affected the farmers.”
There is particular procedure to declare an area drought hit, and the government will release the compensation or relief funds to the affected farmers only when the government truly goes through the processing.
Manjunath, the Village Administrative Officer, Manvi said “The testing process to declare a drought hit area is when the Village administrative officer selects 5 plots from a particular area and click pictures and upload it to the DC office from where it is forwarded to the state government and then they send it to the Central government. All these processes were done and Manvi was declared drought hit.”
The Karnataka government is waiting for a response from the Central government regarding the relief fund.
He added, “The relief fund is expected from the central government, but we are not notified anything yet, and are waiting. On the other hand, with the help of FRUITS ID, 10 to 20% farmers have received Rs.2000 as relief fund, and are working under providing the farmers with the compensation.”
Procedures like ground truthing and crop survey are the key factors to declare a state drought hit.
FRUITS is one major initiative taken by the government to help the farmers in loss.
Hussain K, the head of the Agricultural Office Department said, “Due to the shortage of rainfall in the year 2023-24, whatever the farmers have sown, especially crops like cotton, sunflower, red gram, was at an 80% loss. Immediately after the farmers sown the seed, the agricultural department, horticulture department were conducting crop survey to check on the growth of the crop and how shortage of rainfall has affected the crops. To release the relief fund, the government has developed a software called FRUITS, where it will have farmers’ ID which mainly consists of 3 information. With the help of FRUITS ID, and also by considering the ground truthing and crop survey, the government is paying the compensation amount to the farmers which is Rs 2000, and this is channeled by the Revenue department.” The agriculture department in Manvi are taking steps to help the framers with the selection of crops to sow with regard to their irrigation facilities.
Furthermore he added, “Most of the farmers in Manvi are dependent on rainfall as their source of irrigation, the agricultural department has advised them to grow crops such as bajra and jowar which consumes less water. That is the motto of our department.
The mentality of the farmers here is that, if they get good yield and production for a particular crop, they will continue sowing that seed. So, there are training programs for the farmers to educate them about sowing seeds and changing crops with regard to the irrigation facilities.”
Now, with Rs 3000 crore released by the Central government, the state is expecting more as there are statements released which notes that with the kind of loss the state has faced, the amount is released is worth not much.
