‘Couldn’t Save It’: Farmer ploughs down 4 acres of sugarcane as drought bites

Kalaburagi: In a stark reminder of the deepening drought distress, a sugarcane farmer from Allagi village in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district destroyed his four-acre crop after failing to sustain it due to a prolonged dry spell.

On Monday, he cleared his farmland by ploughing the standing crop into the soil.More than one-and-a-half months into the monsoon season, Kalaburagi district is yet to receive adequate rainfall, forcing farmer Sharanappa Pujari to take the drastic step of destroying the sugarcane cultivated on four acres.Speaking to TOI, Sharanappa said he had planted the crop in December after investing heavily in seeds and had already spent around Rs 2 lakh on fertilisers and irrigation.

“But due to the lack of rainfall, I had no option but to destroy the crop as I could not save it,” he said.He said the crop could have yielded a profit of nearly Rs 6 lakh after 12 months, but maintaining it would have required further expenditure. “Most of the money goes towards buying water from tankers. There is still no assurance of rain, which could result in even greater losses. So I decided to destroy the crop and switch to another crop instead,” Sharanappa said.