SIR Arthur Cotton, the British engineer who was the brains behind the barrage across the Godavari river near Doleswaram, has been a cult figure in the Godavari region for generations. Temples were built for the man who brought prosperity there and his statues adorn villages. His birthday is celebrated with reverence every year. The Godavari delta, spread over 10.3 lakh acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) and coming under West Godavari and East Godavari districts, has become a launch pad for the Green Revolution.
The 150-year-old barrage built by Cotton was washed away by floods in 1986, and another bridge was constructed 45 metres upstream. The new barrage, with 175 vents, a prototype of Cotton's brainchild, provides a dead storage of 3 tmc ft and has an ayacut of 10.3 lakh acres spread across the two districts with assured water supply for two crops a year. The old barrage, with a dead storage of 1 tmc ft, was designed to provide water for only four to six lakh acres for a single crop.
The imposing structure has helped harness Godavari water for agriculture and aquaculture. The Godavari is considered a perennial river with inflows from a host of tributaries such as the Shabari, the Pranahita and the Penganga. The age-old canal and drainage systems designed by Cotton are all set to receive a facelift under a multi-crore modernisation project, which is under way. The drains and canals, which are in bad shape, have become vulnerable to breaches and floods, causing farmers heavy financial losses almost every year. The government has enforced a crop holiday in parts of the delta region in the current rabi season to accelerate the modernisation works. The project is expected to restore the past glory of the delta and save paddy fields from recurrent floods.
The West Godavari district has been undergoing a transformation from agriculture to agro-based industrial activity, with successive generations diversifying into aquaculture, rice milling and other industries after tasting success in paddy cultivation. Of late, lack of remunerative prices, increasing cost of production and soaring labour costs have resulted in distress to the farming community. Evidence of the agrarian crisis manifests in the form of crop holidays in parts of West Godavari district and in the Konaseema region of East Godavari district.
The West Godavari district administration is sparing no effort to bail out agriculture and to protect sharecroppers, who cultivate more than 80 per cent of the agricultural fields. Making bank credit available to a large chunk of tenant farmers through a loan eligibility card (LEC) scheme is the administration's major initiative to address the problem of distress.
Collector G. Vani Mohan asserts that the farmer-induced crop holiday was limited to some extent in West Godavari district because of the LEC initiatives.
G. Nagaraja
