Kulo-inar dried up, tankers irrigated the fields

When the water from the river that easily reaches the field from the well dries up, there is no option for irrigation, and the field has become barren when the wheat should have grown and turned green.

Farmers who are waiting for winter rain until the second week of February are confused. Even after the beginning of the sugarcane planting season, when there is no rain, the farmers have started watering the fields by carrying water in tankers. Rohit Mahato of Mithila Municipality-5 Sripur said that they had to water the fields with tankers to plant sugarcane.

It has been two weeks since I started waiting for my turn to irrigate the field from the well to plant sugarcane on time. The sugarcane prepared for planting has started to dry due to sun and wind. Rohit said that since the well was not enough to irrigate the neighbor's wheat, water had to be sprinkled on the field from a tanker to plant sugarcane. The tanker that sprinkles the road to Madhesh and transports drinking water to Bhoj is currently being used to transport water for irrigation in the fields.

'Rain has not fallen from the sky. To plant sugarcane, the soil should be cool (amount of water). It is time to use sugarcane, some measures must be taken. It is not even possible to leave the field empty," said Rohit, "and since the source of the river has dried up, it has been 10 years since there was any water in the village. Later irrigation started from wells. Now there is no water even in the well. He said that since there was no other option, he had to attach a tanker to the tractor and sprinkle water. He said that they had to purchase water from borings and put it in the sugarcane fields by tanker.

Rohit's farm near 3/4 years ago, but boring was connected from the government budget, but it has dried up without operation. In Mithila Municipality-5, farmers are facing irrigation problems to plant sugarcane north of the East-West Highway. Due to the lack of irrigation, they had to plant gentian sugarcane by spraying water with tankers, said local Srinarayan Mahato.

``To plant sugarcane in one bigha field, six tankers of water had to be poured into the field,'' Sreenarayan said. But those who don't have a tractor will have to spend at the rate of 2,000 per tank. Boring charges 200 rupees to fill a tanker with water, he said. Ward office of Mithila-5 hires tankers to transport water for irrigation. Locals are also using the ward office's tanker to water the fields. The ward office has been renting tankers for Rs 600 per day.

River water has not come to the fields connected to Chure since last 10 years. Locals say that the water source in this area has been cut off due to random river excavation. Dukhilal Mahato Aurhi of Mithila-5 has been coming to water the fields in the morning for a week to plant sugarcane in the fields on the banks of the Aurhi river. Due to the problem of planting sugarcane due to lack of rain, they had to connect a motor to the well and go for days to water it.

Once upon a time, when the water from the river came from the well, the field would drown. Preparations are being made to plant sugarcane by sprinkling water to kill the dust in the fields that are submerged by river water. Due to the inconvenience of irrigation in the fields that grow three crops a year including four maunds of paddy with water from the river, now they have to carry water to plant sugarcane.

Dukhilal said that when there was not enough water, they used to sprinkle water from the piped well and wet the upper part of the soil. After the water in the river dries up, sugarcane cultivation is also difficult. The means of irrigation are rivers and wells. After the spring dries up, when the motor is driven to irrigate the field, the well dries up within 1 hour. From the well, only one katha is irrigated a day, said Dukhilal.

After the water accumulates in the well overnight, he said that if the motor runs for an hour in the morning, the well will dry up. 42-year-old Lakshman Yadav of Mithila municipality Sripur and 32-year-old Pramod Sharma of Bishrampur have started living in the fields to irrigate wheat. Wheat plants have started to dry up due to not applying water on time. Farmers used to live in the fields to draw water from the well by motor. "When the motor runs for 40/45 minutes, the well dries up," Yadav said, "After 2/3 hours the motor stops, the water collects." For that, they have to wait for their turn in the game day and night. They said that they could not do other crops after harvesting the rice due to insufficient irrigation facilities.

Mithila Mayor Mahendra Mahato said that it is unnatural to irrigate sugarcane with tankers even though wells, boreholes and wells have dried up due to illegal mining in other rivers.

'It is not possible to plant sugarcane with tanker water,' Mayor Mahato said, 'It is not possible to water the fields by carrying it in a tanker. It may be that one or two people have cultivated this way in a small area.''

Although there is dry land in Mithila Nagar, most of the local people are dependent on farming, so the plan of deep boring for irrigation has been advanced, he said. There are 17 boring plans in the current year as well. The process of operating the old borings within the city has also been advanced," said Mayor Mahato.

Municipality Agriculture Branch Officer Sanjay Kumar Mahato said that the details of the schemes implemented for irrigation in the municipality are not available in the branch. "The agriculture branch does not have the information that boring has been connected, is yet to be connected and is in operation," he said. He said that only 35 percent of the 19,000 hectares of arable land in the city area has been irrigated.