TS farmers shift to manual starters for borewells

After decades of neglect left them at the mercy of unreliable and erratic electricity supply, farmers in Telangana have now begun to place their faith in Telangana Rashtra Samithi government.

According to available statistics, more than 16 lakh farmers constituting about 70 per cent of the 23 lakh farmers who rely on groundwater have begun switching from auto-starters to manual switches to their borewells. This turn is not just saving electricity but also resulted in conservation of groundwater in many parts of the State, according to officials.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had promised 24-hour uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector from this January 1. And despite the fact it has been less than two months since uninterrupted power supply to the farm sector became a reality, nearly half of the farmers relying on auto starters have now switched to manual borewell pump starters.

Given their history and experience with the power supply in Telangana region in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, some farmers may require a little more time to overcome their fear and reluctance to make the switch. However, the farmers have no reason to worry or fear any change in the promise made by the Chief Minister to them.

“The 24-hour supply to farmers will continue. There is no change in the government’s commitment on this. We will ensure that Telangana farmers will not have to suffer like in the past,” Chairman and Managing Director, Telangana State Generation Corporation, D Prabhakar Rao, told Telangana Today.

He said a fillip to the campaign to educate farmers against the ills of auto starters, including unnecessary draining of groundwater, was on the cards.

“The campaign so far has already begun yielding results. The Chief Minister’s instructions are very clear. Such change in attitude should be voluntary. There will be absolutely no coercion or force on any farmer to make the switch,” Chairman and Managing Director of Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited G Raghuma Reddy said.

This January, electricity consumption in the State jumped by 40 to 45 per cent. And with the campaign to change the borewell pump switches taking hold, this spike has fallen to about 20 to 25 per cent of the average total daily supply of about 190 million units (MU) to all consumer sectors. Of the total daily supply to the State, on an average, the farm sector uses about 55 MU a day.

“One of the direct benefits to farmers has been that they have been able to conserve their groundwater and not destroy their crops by over-watering their fields,” Raghuma Reddy told Telangana Today.

Such were the fears of unreliable power supply in the past decades that according to estimates, farmers in Telangana spent a fortune on auto starters.

The deprivation on the power front was so severe that farmers feared that they would be unable to reach their fields to turn on their pump sets when electricity supply came and before it disappeared again. This deprivation, the estimates suggest, resulted in the 16 lakh odd farmers, who installed auto starters, spending a mind-boggling Rs 241.5 crore to Rs 322 crore for the switches alone over the years.