Kolhapur, July 23: Mahesh Gajanan Dharme of Deshing village in Sangli district paid Rs 20,000 to the Irrigation Department in June for water for his five-acre field from the nearby Mhaisal canal. However, a rainless July has left him on the verge of losing his soybrean crop.

He isn’t the only one facing such a fate. Almost 50 farmers from Deshing village paid a lumpsum of Rs 1 lakh to the department as water fee for their fields. “We had hoped to cultivate our crops by using the canal water. But the canal is dried up and now the Irrigation Department has decided against supplying water to the canal as the water in the river has gone down. All the 22 tanks in Kavatemahankal taluka have dried up. We wait for tankers for drinking water, so how can we think of watering our fields?” asked Dharme.

Five out of 10 talukas in Sangli district are facing a drought-like situation. There is severe drinking water shortage in Aatpadi, Jath, Kavatemahankal, Khanapur and Kadegaon talukas, also the eastern part of Miraj taluka. The declaration of a drought is just a step away. Sangli district has till date recorded 682 mm rainfall as against 3,573 mm rainfall till the third week of July last year.

According to Kolhapur division’s Agriculture Department, only 31 per cent sowing had been completed as on July 18 in Sangli, with 1.21 lakh hectares out of the available 3.67 lakh witnessing sowing for the kharif season.

The situation is somewhat better in Satara and Kolhapur. The kharif sowing in Satara has been to the tune of 61 per cent (2.26 lakh hectares) while in Kolhapur it is 66 per cent (2.57 lakh hectares). Kolhapur district has seen more rainfall, 6,674 mm, though it is way below the 14,300 mm last year.

Satara too has seen 3,366 mm as against 10,000 mm recorded last year.

“The yield of paddy, jowar, maize, bajra, soyabean, groundnut, pulses and oilseeds will be severely affected. Sugarcane yield is not likely to be badly hit as the plantations are situated where water scarcity has not yet been experienced,” said Suresh Magdum, agricultural officer of the Kolhapur Zilla Parishad.