Bone dry to soaking wet

Farmers in Marathwada were ill-prepared for the intense rainfall that hit the perennially water-starved region.

- By HIMANSHU NITNAWARE

THE CANALS and barrages in the village were absolutely dry this summer. But rain in August and September overwhelmed the Sindphana river,” says Ganesh Ghodake, a farmer from Kurla village in Maharashtra's Beed district. Heavy rainfall on September 19-22 made the river swell and the water flooded his farm, which lies adjacent to the river, destroying 3 hectares (ha) of cotton crop. “I invested ₹1.25 lakh on cultivating cotton, and the sale would have fetched me a profit of ₹50,000. But now I will face a loss of ₹65,000,” says the 42-year-old farmer in the state's perennially arid Marathwada region.