“If we don’t get any more rains, the farm produce will be reduced to half of our normal production,” said Jivan Patel, co-ordinator, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS). “However, if it rains from now on, maybe we can get to about 80 per cent of our regular yield,” he added.

Meanwhile, the state Government has already announced extra power supply to the farmers for irrigation to save the crops. “We understand that the industries will have to suffer some reduction in production for a short period, but unless the farmers are given power now, they will lose the crop of the entire year,” said a highly-placed official from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL). “Since last two days, we have been providing about 55 million units to the farmers for irrigation as against the demands of 60million units,” he added.

However, power is not the only issue that worries the farmers and the Government. “The farmers have to be sensitised to make judicious use of water,” said the official adding that GUVNL is also meeting the farmers and trying to generate awareness about alternative modes of irrigation.

“There is no water in the rocky farmlands of north Gujarat and the water level of the wells, too, have gone down in the Saurashtra region,” Patel says.

“At BKS, we are holding regular meetings at the block levels to train the farmers about various modes of economic irrigation,” he says.

“Like in cotton, we are asking them to water every alternate row, which will reduce the need for water. While the Government has announced additional power supply to the fields, we are still not getting uninterrupted power for eight hours, which is very important now,” said Praful Sanjaliya, president, BKS.

“With a situation like this, the standing crop of groundnut, cotton and paddy will suffer heavy losses, which now seems almost inevitable,” he added.

Meanwhile, aggrieved with the power cut, the industry sector in the state has pointed out that it is losing about Rs 1,200 crore worth production per day. “We are expecting the situation to get better in a week’s time when we start getting additional 450 MW power from two plants at Gandhinagar and Paguthan at Bharuch, which are under maintenance now,” said the official.