A Central government expert team is scheduled to visit Vijayanagara district on Monday, October 5, to evaluate the severity of the ongoing drought. The district administration is preparing to claim Rs 249 crore in compensation, citing significant crop losses across 2.71 lakh hectares of agricultural land. All six taluks in the district have been officially recognized as severely drought-affected, with four included in the government’s initial list of severely hit areas and the remaining two added in the third list.
The assessment team will conduct field visits in Maidur village of Harapanahalli taluk and Ittigi village of Hadagali taluk, where the drought conditions are reported to be particularly acute. The district possesses 5.70 lakh hectares of cultivable land, of which 3.83 lakh hectares is dryland and only 1.87 lakh hectares has access to irrigation. Despite the Tungabhadra river flowing through the region, nearly 70 percent of the agricultural land remains dependent on rainfall, which averages 64.24 cm annually. During the current monsoon season, the district received only 16.84 cm of rain against an expected 38.91 cm, leading to widespread drought conditions. Additionally, 1.72 lakh farmers in the district hold less than one hectare of agricultural land.
According to Agriculture Department Joint Director D T Manjunath, the drought has destroyed 1.89 lakh hectares of maize, 30,000 hectares of ragi, 10,000 hectares of hybrid sorghum, 24,000 hectares of groundnut, 4,294 hectares of sunflower, 3,976 hectares of tur, and 4,782 hectares of pearl millet. Farmers in the district have demanded compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre, and attention is focused on whether the Central team will recommend this amount as part of the relief package. The assessment will be conducted by a team comprising Union Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Ajit Kumar Sahu, NITI Aayog’s Lt Col Amrinder Singh, and Dr J Harsha, Director in the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Department of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.