Andhra Pradesh’s rice bowl reputation at stake as the water war heats up
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Photo Credit: K.V.S. Giri
“God alone knows what will happen to those of us who have completed paddy transplantation. There’s no water to protect the paddy, which is either in the tillering or stem elongation stage,” rues Gourisetti Nageswara Rao, a farmer from Mulaparru village in Bantumili area of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, as he surveys his 12-acre semi-parched paddy field.
Several farmers like Rao, in villages located at the tail end of the Krishna River irrigation system, including Bantumilli, Koduru, and Hamsaladeevi mandals, have refrained from undertaking sowing operations. The handful who have managed to complete transplantation, are keeping their fingers crossed — no one knows how much water they will get, or if they will even get any.
