Blessing in disguise: Timely rainfall ends irrigation woes, saves paddy crops in Kashmir

Srinagar: Mohammad Saleem Bhat (50) had almost given up hope to have a good paddy crop this year.

Dry weather coupled with the lack of irrigation water for more than two weeks had started affecting his paddy saplings. He had decided to replace paddy with maize.

 Last week’s rainfall, however, came as a respite. His paddy field received the required water which breathed life into the saplings.

“In Shangus, paddy crop was drastically affected. Even some of the farmers didn’t sow paddy after witnessing a drought-like condition. The timely rainfall has irrigated our fields,” he said.

 Farmers in Kashmir have heaved a sigh of relief as the recent heavy rains broke the drought-like situation and ended irrigation woes.

Officials at the agriculture department said that the irrigation woes have ended across the valley as the rainfall has recharged the groundwater table.

 “For a time being, the crisis has ended. The timely rainfall has saved the crop. We have still managed to provide the facilities to the farmers so that their crop is saved from failure,” said Director agriculture department Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal.

 The Irrigation and Flood control department too said that the rainfall has addressed the problem of irrigation needs.

 “A week ago, the water level at Jhelum basin was at its lowest. The rainfall has increased the water level in all the water bodies,” the department tweeted on its official handle.

 Farmers from north Kashmir too said their fields are currently having enough water to survive the dry weather condition for the next one month.

“The situation was very much bad last week. The fields were in dire need of water and the timely rainfall solved the problem. The concerned department needs to ensure irrigation facilities like installing water pumps at various sites in Kashmir to prevent future droughts,” said Jahangir Ahmad Dar, a farmer from Sopore.

Official figures reveal that around 3.15 lakh hectares of land are under the cultivation of different crops. Of which around 1.41 lakh hectares are under paddy cultivation. Nearly 80000 hectares of land are under maize cultivation and another 30000 hectares are under vegetable cultivation. Around 29000 hectares of land are under fodder, while 20000 hectares are under pulses cultivation. Jammu and Kashmir is a food deficit union territory.

Every year the government imports 7.7 lakh metric tonnes of food grains from different states to meet the demand.  Kashmir produces around nine lakh metric tonnes of food grains annually which is 23 percent less than the requirement. The valley imports over 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of food grains to meet the demand. Paddy is a high water-consuming crop. Rice consumes about 4,000 – 5,000 liters of water per kg of grain produced. It needs water throughout the cultivation period