Water, fodder scarcity stares Sangli and Satara villages

More than 800 villages in the districts of Satara and Sangli were officially declared scarcity-hit by the state government following severe shortage of water and fodder.

New divisional commissioner, Prabhakar Deshmukh, made the announcement to the media in the city on Wednesday. According to Deshmukh, the failure of winter monsoon has brought about this situation.

“In view of the serious issue, the Union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, had called for a special meeting of revenue, agriculture and irrigation departments to come up with a plan to tackle the situation,” he said.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader had asked for a special survey to understand the extent of the problem and means to tackle it. Special cultivation scheme of fodder crops would be propagated amongst farmers by forming clusters of 1,235 acres each. The district authorities would make special arrangements for its cultivation.

Deshmukh said that 274 villages in Satara and 613 villages in Sangli were scarcity-hit.

“In order to avoid future occurrence of such situation, the central and state governments will undertake a special watershed management programme in the division,” he said.

Under this programme, the central government has sanctioned Rs1,121 crore for the division, while the state government through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned Rs146 crore.  A total about 10 lakh hectares of land has been earmarked for this programme.