Kakinada, Oct 25th: Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi has suggested the Agriculture Department to encourage cultivation of irrigated dry crops in view of the unprecedented decline in the yield of the Godavari river and the Yeleru reservoir. Then only the Rabi crop could be assured of minimum water supply, he said at a review meeting. Irrigation Superintending Engineer B. Pratap Babu said water levels in the Cotton barrage and Yeleru reached the dead storage points. The existing quantity of water in the Godavari River could meet the requirement of only 30 per cent of the ayacut and it could go up by 20 per cent if additional water is drawn from Sileru and Kinnerasani.


In response to the SE’s status report, Mr. Dwivedi said cultivation of Rabi crops under the Yeleru system was impossible and measures were needed to be taken a war-footing to carefully utilize the bare minimum quantities of water available in the Godavari. He said the Agriculture and Irrigation Department officials have to chalk out an action plan on the basis of what they had done when a similar situation cropped up in 2002-03. District Revenue Officer M. Mohan Raju, Joint Director of Agriculture T. Nandaiah, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University scientist K. Venugopal and others took part in the deliberations.