The magnitude of the problem can be gauged by the fact that 17 of the 31 ponds that control irrigation in the district -- 18,000 hectares or eight per cent of the district land is under irrigation -- have water below the sill-level, making it only fit for the consumption of cattle.

The reasons for the phenomenon, which begins in December, are as varied as depleting storage capacity, seepage, silting, misuse and the falling water-levels of borewells, but the fallout is the same: barren agricultural fields.

Drought, so long the scourge of Saurashtra, has come home to Vadodara.

While the natural layout of the land may not encourage the digging of more ponds -- not one pond has been dug in the district since 1983 -- and depletion of bore-wells may be an unavoidable factor, neither the District Panchayat nor the Agriculture Department has a long-term plan to tackle seepage, siltation or prevention of misuse.

``There's nothing we can do about it'', says the District Panchayat's irrigation department executive engineer P M Chaudhary about the 17 ponds.Seepage contributes a great deal to the crisis. Arvind Chauhan of Subhelav points out that breaches in the canals that convey water to the field are rarely repaired. The structure of the pond can also encourage seepage.

``Around 15 to 20 per cent of the water is lost in seepage'', confesses Chandubhai Patel, assistant director of agriculture in the Vadodara District Panchayat. ``It can be controlled by layering (the structures with) plastic sheets, but that's expensive.''

Silting is yet another recurring problem. While Chaudhary claims the Panchayat has been regularly clearing the residue mud from ponds, farmers say the measures aren't adequate. Deputy Director of the Water Resources Engineering and Management Institute D T Shete says the problem could be checked by creating weirs.

He has other suggestions as well, proposing that the pressure on the ponds -- brought on by the depleting levels of bore-wells, which is attributed to excess drawing of water -- be addressed by recharging the wells. The suggestion finds support in Mehar Hussain, deputy sarpanch of Karachia, who says the bore-well water is so bad, the land becomes useless after one crop.Apart from the ``natural'' problems are that of pilferage. Soma Solanki of Subhelav alleges some farmers open the canal gates and divert extra water. M Shrivastav, an engineer with the Panchayat's Irrigation Department, says specific complaints can be dealt with, but maintains round-the-clock monitoring is impossible.

Asked about canals repairs and pucca construction, he says minor irrigation funds are very low. ``About Rs 10 lakhs are spent on maintenance, including levelling of the banks and removing mud'', Chaudhary says. ``We are repairing banks and clearing silt, but Narmada water is the only solution.''

So that leaves farmers like Jitendra Patel of Subhelav village depending on the monsoons. ``(But) a shortfall in the rains reduces the yield by a whopping 75 per cent'', says Patel apprehensively. ``Even wheat is destroyed sometimes for want of that last dose of water'', says Raman Solanki of Pasva. ``Governments nowadays don't bother about agriculture'', laments C Patel, an elderly farmer from Muval.

The situation is as grim in Kotambhi, Sarvan and Jambuvai of Waghodia and Singala and Kundanpur of Chhotaudepur. And the closest solution is years away.