With farmers being distressed by fluctuatingmonsoonrainfall for successive years, experts feel having farm ponds (krishi honda) in fields will minimise their woes.
They have urged the government to revive the Krishi Bhagya scheme to ensure a pond in each farmland.
The suggestion comes in the wake of a prolonged spell of weak monsoon in August followingexcessive rain in June and July.
About 86 taluks were hit by floods when there was copious rainfall, but crops are now drying in these and other areas due to lack of water.
The water scarcity is despite most reservoirs being almost full. For instance, the Dams in Krishna basin are 99% full (overall) they have 411.9 tmc ft of water as against their cumulative storage capacity of 417.5 tmc ft. About 106 tmc ft is stored in the dams of Cauvery basin against their maximum capacity of 114.6 tmc ft.
According to data from Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), only 42% of the total 3,639 minor Irrigation tanks in the state have storage more than 50% of their capacity at present.