Moderate rainfall aids delta farmers complete cultivation

Trichy: Moderate rainfall continued across the delta districts throughout Tuesday, providing the much-needed irrigation support to farmers completing their paddy crop cultivation and those who had begun planting pulses.Approximately 80% of the samba and thaladi paddy cultivation has now been completed in the delta region. The remaining portion is expected to be finished and ready for harvest within the next 10 days. Farmers whose crops were in the late flowering stages and milky stages and required additional water greatly benefited from Tuesday's rainfall.Water release from the Mettur dam was scaled back during the latter half of Feb. As of Tuesday, the dam was discharging around 2,500 cusecs. From the Kallanai barrage, water is being released into the Vennar river at approximately 600 cusecs, while the flow in both the Cauvery river and the grand anicut canal remains at zero.Due to the current shortage of water in Cauvery, some farmers had been relying on alternative irrigation methods for their samba and thaladi crops. The moderate rainfall on Tuesday delivered a crucial final round of moisture to these fields as the crops move toward maturity.In areas where samba and thaladi paddy cultivation has been completed, farmers have begun sowing pulses such as black gram and green gram as their subsequent crop. These pulse crops are presently in the seedling stage, having grown for two to three weeks.The rainfall allowed farmers to reduce their dependence on Cauvery water and groundwater, for irrigating the young pulse crops.