The unprecedented drought conditions in the State has affected paddy crop in as many as 1,090 hectares in Pathanamthitta, according to a survey conducted by the Agriculture Department. The survey report presented at the official meeting that reviewed the drought situation in the district the other day has categorically stated that scarcity of water has resulted in crop loss in many parts of the district. The district witnessed paddy farming in a total of 2,700 ha of land this year, including 320 ha that have been lying fallow for several years. The acute water scarcity due to failure of various lift irrigation projects and collapse of a portion of the Pampa Irrigation Project canal near Vadasserikkara added more worries to the crisis ridden farm sector. The crisis further deepened in certain areas, including a portion of the water-starved Upper Kuttanad region, with the the Rice Swarming Worm alias Rice Army Worm starting to devour the paddy crop. Not less than 500-acre crop land in the Upper Kuttanad areas of Peringara, Niranom, Kadapra and Kuttoor have been reportedly infested with the caterpillar locally known as ‘Pattalappuzhu.’ Crop loss has been reported from the paddy field of Kothaviruthy, Ayyankonary, Edayody, Vellaramkary, Erathodu, Padavinakom, Kaippala-West, Vengal, Koorachal, and Panakary in the Upper Kuttanad; Meenthalavyal in Thiruvalla; Karikulam near Eraviperoor; Edayody near Kozhencherry; Narikkuzhy, Naduvathody, Vettakulam near Vallikkode; Mavarappuncha in Pandalam; and in the Punnon paddy fields in Naranganam panchayat. Though there were reports that water will be released into the canals of the Kallada Irrigation Project in early January, the authorities now say that the KIP canals will be made live in February. It is also a fact that many reaches of the KIP and PIP canals have been badly damaged and it is quite unlikely to complete their repair works this year. Canals The canals have been lying blocked at many places with the local people constructing bunds across it to construct roads leading to their houses on either banks of them. “But, the Water Resources Minister, Mathew T. Thomas, is yet to take a serious note of the drought situation, and that too in his own home district, for reasons best known to him,” alleged P.P. Chandrashekharan Nair, a farmers’ group convener in Aranmula. Source - http://www.thehindu.com