Bindusara lake, Beed city's water source, down to 5%; fodder left for just 15 days

Beed: The long break in the rains has made drinking water and cattle fodder serious problems in the district. The Bindusara lake, which supplies Beed city, holds only 5 per cent of its usable capacity, compared with 100 per cent at this time last year. The city's daily need of 38 million litres will now have to come from the Majalgaon dam, and the administration has reserved the remaining stock for drinking only, the central team's two-day tour of the district found.

In rural areas, percolation tanks at Morgaon, Vaidyakinhi and Daskhed have dried up and wells have run to the bottom. At Daskhed, a farmer who spent ₹54,000 on three acres of soybean expects only one-and-a-half to two quintals, worth barely ₹9,000 to ₹10,000. Pomegranate and sweet-lime orchards are also withering for want of water.

At Bedukwadi in Patoda taluka, a family that collects about 130 litres of milk a day has fodder of its own for only 15 more days. Bought fodder costs ₹11,000 a tonne. Because the soybean crop was stunted, it had to be harvested by machine, leaving no husk for the cattle.

Farmers asked for urgent aid of ₹2 lakh a hectare to save orchards, a ₹50,000 subsidy for farm ponds and fodder depots to be opened immediately, putting their demands to Muktanand Agrawal, joint secretary in the Union agriculture ministry, state agriculture secretary Parimal Singh and collector Vivek Johnson.

Source: Mahasamvad