Farmers form a bulk of the electorate in the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu; but they have had to face water scarcity which has affected their ‘kuruvai’ and ‘samba’ crops
The mostly rural electorate in Thanjavur, located in the delta of the Cauvery river in Tamil Nadu, have voted in the INDIA bloc over concerns and hardships they have faced in recent years regarding agrarian issues, according to experts.
Murasoli S of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was declared winner in Thanjavur Lok Sabha constituency. With a final vote count of 502,245 votes, he defeated Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate Sivanesan P, who polled 182,662 votes.
Agricultural concerns have perennially shaped the political narrative in Thanjavur where 66.6 per cent of the population lives in villages, according to the 2011 Census.
Thanjavur’s farmers have recently grappled with acute challenges, including water scarcity, pest plagues, and frequent crop failure.
Senthil Kumar, president of the All India Kisan Sabha’s Thanjavur district chapter, told Down To Earth that these hardships threaten the livelihoods of the farming community and significantly sway electoral opinions.
Not a drop
Water is an overriding concern for farmers in Thanjavur where the Cauvery, originating in the hills of Kodagu district in Karnataka, ends in the Bay of Bengal.
Last year, almost 20 districts of Tamil Nadu including Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Mannargudi were in the grip of acute water shortage.
The water scarcity in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta districts presented a severe challenge to the state’s agriculture. The Cauvery delta is the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. The water scarcity particularly affected the kuruvai and samba paddy cultivation in the region.
Farmers in delta districts such as Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Nagapattinam, who rely heavily on irrigation from the Mettur Dam for their kuruvai crop, were facing significant difficulties due to insufficient water supply.
The storage in the Mettur dam was critically low at 46 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) in July, when 100 TMC was needed. This put the yield of the short-duration crop at risk, jeopardising the livelihoods of over 360,000 farmers.
Despite the expectation that Karnataka would release 177.25 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu in a normal year, the lack of sufficient releases added to the woes of Tamil Nadu farmers.
The predicament of the delta farmers extended to the samba crop, typically sown between September and November, which also depends on consistent irrigation. The shortfall in the water supply placed another key agricultural staple under threat, potentially leading to economic distress for the farming community.
As a response to these challenges, many farmers were compelled to seek alternative sources of income, such as enrolling in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for guaranteed days of work, or migrating to cities like Chennai and Tirupur to find work. This shift reflected the gravity of the situation and its impact on the rural economy.
Analysis of past Lok Sabha constituency election results from Thanjavur reveals that the electorate’s support often swings toward those who prioritise and understand the gravity of these agricultural concerns.
Kumar noted that the INDIA alliance seized voter attention this election by promising farmers a minimum support price for their crops should they be elected.
He added that the central government usually lacked the capacity to meet these local demands. Regional parties were more attuned to the specific needs of Thanjavur’s farmers, according to Kumar.
It is an assertion that Chennai-based political observers and psephologists agreed with. Farmers, representing a substantial fraction of the Thanjavur electorate, wield significant power over the outcome of the elections, they noted.
Farmers and their families, frustrated and yearning for change, looked toward leaders who acknowledged their hardships and were prepared to implement tangible agricultural reforms.
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