"Free agri power to one and all" is a common manifesto across political parties during pre-elections. Free agri power is great but the glitch is unavailability of 'reliable and predictable' power supply.
Power situation in Tamil Nadu is detriorating by the day with cuts lasting 8-10 hours a day in rural areas. At Sivagangai, power schedule changes every Monday. So far we have recorded 4 combinations that TNEB has followed in the last few months. The picture below says it all..
Power situation in Tamil Nadu is detriorating by the day with cuts lasting 8-10 hours a day in rural areas. At Sivagangai, power schedule changes every Monday. So far we have recorded 4 combinations that TNEB has followed in the last few months. The picture below says it all..
This is interesting! So how do you figure out which schedule is being followed for the week and when to begin your power based tasks.
ReplyDeleteMondays are spent sitting in the office monitoring the supply.
DeleteOh, I would imagine, then the best option is to run the water whenever possible. 8 hours of powercut means, if you really have a big farm, its not going to be enough..
ReplyDeleteThe check marks indicate availability of power. Although we have 6-8 hours of supply during the day, "irrigation time" is only 2-4 hours since we do not irrigate between 10 am and 4 pm due to heat. Yes, it is a challenge. We need to be judicious in allocating time to each plot. Drip definitely helps since 20 mins of irrigation can deliver 5 litres (which is enough for now)
DeleteIs one among the reasons why even the traditional progressive farmers quit farming in tamilnadu.
ReplyDeleteAs a government policy, we just need to do away with free power connections. Unfortunately, people do not value power and water supply with such benefits.
DeleteI can imagine it is near impossible to irrigate 10+ acres under flood irrigation with such erratic power supply.
Given the erratic power supply and the minimalistic 2-4 irrigation window, could this be an option?
ReplyDeleteSet up water tanks scattered throughout the farm, fill them up when power is available and then let gravity do the job at appropriate time.
I know this is added infrastructure cost but would this work? Is it feasible?
It really depends on the water requirement for the crop. For now, 2-3 hr window is enough but that may not be the case a couple of years from now..
ReplyDeleteYes, your idea should work. The only drawback is that this may not work as well in larger tracts of land (but then numerous tanks spread across should take of that problem. ) You should look into the cost.