“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.