Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the 7th edition of the IITMAA Sangam 2026 annual conference, on the theme ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat – Building a Self-Reliant India’, in Bengaluru
| Photo Credit: PTI

Amit Kumar (fourth left), Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, presenting the TGLIA:STC awards at the UPASI annual conference in Coonoor on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: M. SATHYAMOORTHY

Collector Nishant Kumar inspecting a feeder channel as part of ‘Jaladhara’ water conservation works near Madanapalle in Annamayya district on Wednesday.
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The hot winds sweeping across the ancient Kallanai, which should be brimming with water by now, are raising temperatures across the Cauvery delta this year. A weak southwest monsoon and the vexed inter-State river water sharing dispute with Karnataka have left farmers in the region in distress yet again.

As the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur could not be opened on the customary date of June 12 owing to insufficient storage, a majority of farmers in the delta, for whom the Cauvery is the lifeline, have not been able to cultivate paddy this kuruvai (kharif) season. With the Super El Nino effect looming large, farmers are worried about the prospects of the forthcoming samba crop too.

Over the past few months, the flow into the Mettur dam from Karnataka has been meagre. Tamil Nadu realised just 2.915 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) in the Cauvery from Karnataka in June, against the 9.19 tmc ft stipulated for the month by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

Consequently, after a record coverage in 2025, when kuruvai paddy was raised on over six lakh acres against the normal area of about 4.4 lakh acres, agricultural fields across the delta, irrigated by a network of rivers and canals, are lying fallow. Announcing the kuruvai special package, the State government said the crop could be raised on about 3.55 lakh acres with groundwater. But farmers claim that only 1.5 lakh acres would be covered in the filter point areas in the core delta districts, largely in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur.

The kuruvai cultivation area in Thanjavur has come down to around 89,000 acres this season from around 1,94,000 acres in the previous cultivation year. In Tiruvarur, the coverage area has dwindled to around 64,000 acres from around 1,91,000 acres in 2025-26, say district officials.

A section of farmers who had raised the crop using groundwater is complaining about erratic three-phase power supply. Complaints of withering crops have been reported in a few places in the delta.

Cultivation with groundwater

R. Arivazhagan, a farmer of Olaidevarayanpettai in Thanjavur district, has raised kuruvai paddy on six acres with groundwater. He explains the issues in cultivation with groundwater. Though he has raised the crop, many of his fellow villagers are not able to do so owing to the depletion in the groundwater table as the rivers are dry. “My neighbour is drilling a fresh borewell and the yield from my borewell is going down too. There are disruptions in three-phase power supply owing to voltage drops and other issues. I am not sure whether I will be able to see through my 25-day-old crop over the next three months,” he says.

Several farmers who had taken up summer ploughing in anticipation of water release from the Mettur dam have burnt their fingers. “Many of us had taken up summer ploughing twice by spending at least ₹1,500 an acre each time, expecting water discharge by mid-June. But we could not go in for the kuruvai crop and our lands are lying fallow. Farm labourers have been rendered jobless. The entire rural economy has been badly affected,” says R. Pandidurai, a farmer of Seelathanallur in Tiruvarur.

Farmers demand that the entire State, especially the delta districts, be declared drought-hit so that they can avail themselves of relief, including compensation under the ‘prevented sowing/planting risk’ (due to adverse weather) clause of the Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme. “We had kept the fields ready after ploughing, but there was no flow in the Cauvery. Farmers in Nagapattinam district have been hit as we don’t have too many borewells, except in the Thirumarugal area. We hope we will get some compensation under the crop insurance scheme,” says Karunainathan of Vedaranyam.

Mahadhanapuram Rajaram, a veteran farmers’ leader and president of the Cauvery Irrigation Farmers Welfare Association, says, “We estimate that the delta farmers stand to lose about ₹1,125 crore as they have not been able to raise kuruvai crop. It would also trigger fodder shortage in the coming months. If the samba or thaladi crops too were affected by drought or rain at harvest stages, the financial burden on the State would be heavier.”

“We could face a production loss of up to 15 lakh tonnes of paddy this season. More importantly, the loss of the crop could lead to migration of farm labourers as they look for other sources of income,” says Cauvery Dhanapalan, president, Tamil Nadu Vivasaya Sangankalin Kootuiyakkam.

“The inflow and the storage at Mettur are still not encouraging. We doubt whether the government will manage to get water from Karnataka. The prediction of a weak monsoon due to the El Nino effect has cast a shadow over the samba crop too,” Mr. Pandidurai says. The dam had just 38 tmc ft of water against its capacity of 93.47 tmc ft, and the inflow was hovering at 125 cusecs last week. The dam, which was at its full capacity during the same time last year, needs substantial inflows in the coming weeks for the government to decide on water discharge for the samba season.

P.R. Pandian of the Coordination Committee of All Farmers Associations of Tamil Nadu says the lack of Cauvery water has endangered the livelihood of farmers in the delta this year. “The southwest monsoon has been scanty, and is going to end soon. It has been predicted that the State may get less than normal rainfall during the northeast monsoon too. We may go in for the samba crop with direct sowing, pinning our hopes on the monsoon. But the question is whether we will be able to protect the crop through the season. Unless the monsoon comes to our aid, we have a very precarious situation,” he says. “Only if water is released from the Mettur dam by August can farmers safely raise long-duration varieties during the samba season. If the water release is delayed further, they can only go in for medium or short-term varieties,” says Mr. Dhanapalan.

‘Declare delta as drought-hit’

Mr. Pandian says it is time the government declared the delta ‘drought-hit’ and started rolling out relief measures. “It should provide drought relief as was done by the Jayalalithaa government some years ago. The government should provide ₹15,000 an acre as relief for the kuruvai loss,” he says, adding that the government should also support farmers raising the samba crop using groundwater by providing seeds and diesel at subsidised rates.

Farmers organisations say the kuruvai special package, announced by the government, has not been of much help. “Though the government had said farmers would be given the support for two acres, officials here say we will get it only for one acre each as there have been a number of applications. The application process is cumbersome, and we are required to submit several documents such as bills for machine planting, photos of farmers in the field, besides the land records. We have to spend considerable time and effort in submitting these papers for a meagre financial support,” Mr. Arivazhagan says, calling for simplifying the application process.

“The special package is inadequate to meet the requirements of farmers. Since there has been a large number of applications, the allocation should be increased,” says Swamimalai Vimalnathan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers Protection Association.

He wants the government to come up with a special samba package too as farmers who were not able to raise the kuruvai crop will plant samba, pinning their hopes on a good monsoon. He suggests that as a special case, the government provide free farm connections to those who have been waiting for long so that more farmers can take up cultivation using groundwater.

Delta farmers also take a critical view of Food Minister P. Venkataramanan’s reported suggestion that farmers go in for alternative crops in view of the water shortage. “Before making such suggestions, the government should carry out a proper study and identify crops which are suitable for the different soil conditions in the delta region. Such crops should also be able to withstand the monsoon. But there seems to be no plan or effort in this direction,” says Mr. Vimalnathan.

“Karnataka has been releasing only the surplus water and does not agree to the distress-sharing formula. We have not even got half of June’s quota of water and there is no guarantee that Karnataka will release our share in July or August. Tamil Nadu should sanction relief to the farmers and can mobilise funds by claiming compensation from Karnataka for the crop losses,” says V. Jeevakumar, a farmers leader of Budalur.

Running from pillar to post

D. Abraham of Kanarpatti in Tirunelveli district had sold over 7.50 tonnes of paddy to the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India nine months ago. But he is still running from pillar to post to get his payment of ₹1.86 lakh. His family expenses forced him to not only pledge his jewels but also to pay interest for them till date.

The plight of Mr. Abraham, who is the district secretary of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers’ Associations, is not unique. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam  government’s announcement on waiver of cooperative crop loans came as a jolt to the farmers who pointed to the gap between what the TVK had promised before the election and what it announced after coming to power.

The TVK manifesto had promised a complete loan waiver for small and marginal farmers who own up to 5 acres of land and a 50% waiver for the others. On May 25 this year, the government announced that only loans of up to ₹50,000 would be waived fully for marginal farmers. For loans exceeding ₹50,000, the waiver ranged between ₹5,000 and ₹40,000.

Effectively, a marginal farmer with a loan of over ₹1 lakh would get only ₹5,000 as relief. It was worse for small farmers as only 50% of loans up to ₹50,000 were waived. For the rest, the waiver ranged from ₹5,000 to ₹20,000. This triggered massive protests by farmers across the State.

‘Let down by the TVK government’

“While the poll promise of the TVK spoke only about total loan waiver for all farmers based on their land holdings, the government introduced ceilings. Farmers had voted for the TVK based on its promises, but we feel let down,” says R. Rampandian, of Aruppukottai, a functionary of Southern District Farmers’ Association.

The government blamed the Reserve Bank of India’s Model Operating Procedure, which mandates that States implementing loan waivers must settle the entire amount to co-operative banks within 45 to 60 days. It also blamed the State’s finances.

With all major political parties, including the DMK, the AIADMK, and the BJP, backing the farmers, they vowed to continue their protest till the ruling TVK implemented its poll promise. The government responded by announcing a revised loan waiver scheme on June 16.

It promised total waiver of loans up to ₹75,000 for all farmers irrespective of land holdings. For loans above ₹75,000, the waiver was restricted to ₹35,000 per farmer. But the farmers remain dissatisfied and their protests continue.

Maharashtra model

The Maharashtra government’s announcement that a complete waiver of farm loans up to ₹2 lakh would be sanctioned has further fuelled anger among farmers. “Won’t the RBI norms apply to Maharashtra? Why cannot Tamil Nadu follow suit,” asked  N.A. Ramachandra Raja of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam. Of the 600 farmers who had borrowed from the Singarajakottai Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society in Rajapalayam, only 170 will benefit from the waiver, he said.

Why do farmers demand loan waivers? They complain that their occupation has become a gamble amid the adverse impact of climate change. “Each year, several farmers part with their farmland unable to handle the crop loss they face. The government needs to incentivise grain production,” Mr. Ramachandra Raja says.

The farmers point out that farmers in Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh are being given ₹6,000 to ₹10,000 as incentive to sustain food production. While a farmer sells one quintal of paddy for ₹2,450, he buys a 50-kg bag of complex fertilizer for ₹2,100, Mr.  Ramachandra Raja points out.

Mr. Abraham adds, “If the farmer wants to increase the yield, he has to apply potash, costing ₹2,400 [50-kg bag]. And the cost of pesticides has also skyrocketed.”

In addition, the farmers face shortage of workers during peak farming season as the workers prefer MGNREGS  work.

“Even after we undergo all these hardships to raise the paddy, the government is in no mood to give us a fair remuneration. In a situation where the farmers cannot fix the price of their produce, we have no other option but to demand crop loan waiver to sustain farming,” he says.

The Swaminathan Committee had recommended that the Minimum Support Price for crops should at least be 50% more than the comprehensive cost of production. “If its recommendation is implemented, we would not need crop loan waiver or fertilizer subsidy. It is now the bounden duty of the government to provide crop loan waiver,” says Mr. Perumbadaiyar of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam in Tirunelveli.

(With inputs from V. Venkatasubramanian in Thanjavur, S. Sundar in Madurai, and P. Sudhakar in Tirunelveli)

In limbo: So far, nearly 1,700 acres of land has been acquired in various villages for the project. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

For Mahalakshmi R., who has been riding a bike taxi for nearly two years, every increase in fuel and food prices directly cuts into her daily earnings. What was once enough for three modest meals a day is no longer sufficient. “I earn an average of ₹700 to ₹1,000 each day, depending on the number of rides. I spend around ₹200 on fuel for my vehicle. Earlier I could manage food expenses within ₹250 a day. Now I skip meals because the prices of everything have gone up. Even idlis cost much more now,” she says, as she waits for the next ride request.

As fuel costs climb and food becomes increasingly unaffordable, fresh concerns over a possible return to large-scale work-from-home arrangements have added another layer of uncertainty for drivers like her, whose livelihoods depend entirely on people commuting to office each day.

From Chennai to the southernmost districts of Tamil Nadu, rising food prices are steadily tightening household budgets, with restaurants and eateries quietly revising menu rates upward every few weeks. The burden on the public has intensified further with hikes in fuel prices — thrice in 10 days. On Saturday (May 23), the Union government increased the prices (petrol: ₹105.31 and diesel: ₹96.98 in Chennai). This increase came after a hike of ₹3 on May 15 and 90 paise on May 19. The availability of LPG cylinders continues to remain a concern, with several consumers reporting delivery delays stretching up to two weeks in certain cases.

Takeaway troubles

From middle-class families and bachelors to hostel students and information technology professionals dependent on daily takeaways, people across Tamil Nadu say the cost of putting food on the table has risen sharply, even as incomes and salaries have largely remained stagnant.

“Ever since the LPG supply crisis began, small restaurants and roadside eateries have been among the worst affected. Larger food chains with multiple outlets across the State were able to manage the situation better owing to their scale and supply networks. However, these major brands were also the first to increase food prices and reduce portion sizes. Smaller eateries have followed suit only in the past two weeks,” said a food consultant.

In Triplicane, a Chennai neighbourhood with a large number of men’s mansions housing job seekers and migrant workers, residents say their daily food expenses have increased by ₹50 to ₹125 in recent weeks. Many who moved to the city in search of employment say affordable food was one of the reasons they chose to stay in mansions despite their cramped living conditions. “We stay in mansions because it helps us cut down on room rent and manage our expenses better. But eating has now become more expensive than lodging,” said Rajavel, a resident of a mansion in the locality. Men living in mansions across the State face the same crisis.

Young professionals and Gen Z employees working in the IT sector say rising travel and food expenses are beginning to strain their monthly budgets. Archana, a software professional employed at a small IT firm along Chennai’s Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), said recent workplace changes added to her financial burden. “After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement encouraging work-from-home, our company reduced its employee transport services and asked the staff members to arrange commute on their own. Now, I must bear my daily travel expenses too,” she said. According to industry experts, the State has over 10 lakh people working in the IT sector, including many from other States.

Silent surge

A cooking oil industry source said that in the past few days, the prices of cooking oils, including palm and sunflower oils, had gone up by ₹15 a litre. Amid rumours that excise duty on cooking oil imports would be increased, there has been panic buying and hoarding. “Since countries that mainly supply cooking oil to India, including Malaysia and Indonesia, have diverted their excess stocks to make biodiesel, the nation’s supplies too are likely to be hit. They too want to conserve foreign exchange by not buying crude oil. If crude prices go down, the price of palm oil too will go down,” he said. Besides homes, palm oil is mainly used in the hotel industry for cooking and making snacks.

Salem Shevapet Maligai and Shop Varthaga Nala Sangam president S.C. Natarajan said that owing to favourable seasonal rainfall, the prices of most grocery items remained stable, with only a few commodities witnessing an increase of ₹5 to ₹10 a kg. Compared with March this year, the price of ‘toor dal’ has increased from ₹125 to ₹130 a kg, while Bengal gram has risen from ₹85 to ₹90 a kg. The price of roasted gram has also gone up from ₹90 to ₹100 per kg, he added.

Firewood cost rising too

Hotels that shifted from LPG to firewood are now grappling with rising firewood cost too. With demand for ‘seemai karuvelam’ (Prosopis juliflora) increasing sharply, the prices have risen from ₹6,000 to ₹13,000 per tonne, Madurai-based wholesale trader A. Karthikeyan said, adding that his customer base had grown from 50 to 70 since the gas shortage began.

Peanut hulls, another alternative biofuel widely used by sweet shops in the region, have also become costlier following the LPG price hike. Known for generating the intense heat required for continuous boiling of sugar syrup, the fuel is commonly used in sweet-making units. M. Kannagaraj, a sweet shop owner in Madurai, said the price of a 30-kg gunny bag of peanut hulls had risen from ₹240 to ₹280. He feared the price might increase further if LPG rates continued to rise.

Rising prices of essential commodities, LPG, and fuel have been affecting the operations of parotta shops in Tiruchi’s Edamalaipatti Pudur area. Shops that once started preparing parottas from early afternoon have begun staggering cooking schedules to optimise the use of gas cylinders and firewood stoves. Residents say the impact is already visible in food prices. “Not long ago, a parotta cost ₹10. It rose to ₹15 earlier this year and now sells for ₹25. Today, buying six parottas costs more than the gravy that accompanies them,” said a resident of Edamalaipatti Pudur.

Cloud kitchens, which rely heavily on app-based food orders, are also facing mounting pressure amid the rising operational cost and shrinking profit margins. Tiruchi alone has nearly 250 cloud kitchens, and several of them are reportedly on the verge of shutting down, according to S. Sundaresan, district secretary of the Tiruchi Hotel Association. “Subscription-based meal services have been among the worst hit by the price rise because we cannot increase rates after customers have already paid their monthly fee. At best, we may have to reduce the number of deliveries or impose a surcharge on future subscriptions,” said S. Siva of Mukkani Tiruchi, a fresh-cut fruits and salads subscription service. Several women, particularly those running cloud kitchens and subscription-based food services across the State, fear that the continuing rise in the fuel and raw material costs could severely affect their already modest monthly savings and threaten the sustainability of their businesses.

Delivery workers in trouble

Food and e-commerce delivery workers say the steady rise in fuel prices is pushing them deeper into financial stress, even as their earnings remain stagnant. Many complain that while the cost of petrol continues to rise, companies have done little to offset the burden on gig workers. “There are far more delivery workers now than there were two years ago, but the number of bookings we receive has reduced sharply. Our incomes have remained the same while fuel expenses keep increasing,” said a delivery executive, expressing concern over the growing struggle to sustain daily expenses.

Many consumers say the new government must urgently intervene to regulate soaring food prices, accusing sections of the hotel industry of increasing rates at the slightest excuse while rarely reducing them when commodity prices fall. “Hotel associations are always quick to cite rising costs and hike prices, but when market prices come down, customers never see any reduction on their bills. The common man is being squeezed from all sides. Someone must step in and control these arbitrary price hikes,” they said.

Supplies stretched

An expert on LPG said that only 60%-70% of the requirement was at present bottled at the plants owing to the reduction in supplies. “There were times when bottling plants worked to fill up 120% of bookings and distributors still had backlogs. At present, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) seem to be stretching whatever supplies of LPG they have. In urban areas, though booking is allowed after 25 days as opposed to 45 days in rural areas, it takes nearly 40 days for the cylinder to reach the customer. It is the same with rural consumers.”

Distributors say they get only one load of bottles where two are needed. OMCs have been saying they have enough stock and there is no need to panic, but they are not permitting new 14.2-kg domestic connections because diversions happen rampantly. “This is mostly done by the delivery boys with the connivance of a few distributors,” said an oil industry source.

(With inputs from Sabari M. in Salem and Namakkal; Nahla Nainar and Ancy Donal Madonna in Tiruchi; P.V. Srividya in Krishnagiri and Hosur; S.P. Saravanan in Erode; Beulah Rose in Madurai; and Deepa Ramakrishnan in Chennai.)

A tapper collecting latex from a rubber tree at a plantation in Kanjirappally, Kottayam.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

As a young boy growing up in the small town of Chitradurga in central Karnataka, Apoorva BV often spent time observing the natural world. “Animals, birds and insects have always been my favourite topics since childhood,” says the Bengaluru-based beekeeper and beekeeping educator, who has recently set up a one-of-its-kind Bee Museum at the Keladi Shivappa Nayaka Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences in Iruvakki, Shivamogga.

Like most of his peers, he went on to join an engineering college, but by his third year, he found himself drawn into the world of bees after attending a beekeeping session organised by senior beekeeper, S M Shanthaveeraiah of Chandana Madhuvana Gramina Abhivruddhi Sangha, a non-government organisation (NGO) focused on rural development.

It first started as a hobby, explains Apoorva, who began by keeping these insects in his bedroom, close to the windows, where he could observe them, “especially the first flight of the day, which happened at a particular time every day.”

He also began offering help to farmers who attended the beekeeping programmes run by Shanthaveeraiah’s NGO, even volunteering as an assistant trainer. “I then started to explore how I can make this a profession. After graduation, I started to travel across the country to meet beekeepers, staying with apiary workers to learn apiary management,” recalls the founder of The Hive trust, a Bengaluru-headquartered non-profit organisation focused on bee-education and conservation.

It is all this knowledge, painstakingly gathered through the years, that has been funnelled into the new bee museum, which Apoorva hopes will help, “even a person who knows nothing about bees, find them interesting.”

Listing some aspects of bees that are detailed in the museum, Apoorva says, “If you walk around, you will see what honey bees are, the hierarchy in the colony, the equipment used in beekeeping, the difference between solitary and social bees and bee habitats.”

The museum also offers insights into the indispensable role that small pollinators, including bees, wasps, rodents, and birds, play in ecosystem-functioning, as well as some of the challenges they face. “Pesticides, loss of habitat and change in agricultural practices affect all these pollinators, not just bees.”

This is the first time he has worked on a project like this, says this impassioned educator, who has been regularly conducting beekeeping workshops across the State and participating in events such as Krishi Mela, Lalbagh Flower Show, farmers’ markets, and agricultural expositions.

The university, he says, approached him to create this museum, which is not just for university students but also for farmers who visit the university regularly. “Generally, these kinds of things go to professional designers, but, as a beekeeper who always enjoyed educating others on beekeeping, this was a good opportunity for me,” says Apoorva.

According to him, Shivamogga and its surroundings have significant potential to increase their beekeeping capacity. “There are so many beekeepers in Sagar, Thirthahalli, Agumbe and Mandagadde,” he says, adding that he is collaborating with a professor at the university, Jayalaxmi Hegde, on the project.

“She had taken the responsibility of implementing the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) scheme and had already conducted beekeeping training programmes for farmers, as well as distributed beekeeping equipment and accessories, along with bees,” says Apoorva. After she had done this, some funds remained, so they decided to channel them into a museum on campus. “And I started working on it.”

The actual process of creating the museum had more than its fair share of challenges, recounts Apoorva. “It took a long time because of the distance: I am in Bengaluru, and Shivamogga is pretty far (around 300 kilometres from Bengaluru); from Shivamogga, we have to go another 50 kilometres to reach this place,” he says.

He also had to deal with seepage, crumbling walls and workers quitting abruptly, unpleasant surprises that had not been budgeted for. “There were nights when I wondered if I should just pack up. But something kept me going. Maybe it was the museum’s purpose. Maybe it was my own,” reminiscences Apoorva, who got the contract last June and took a little under a year to create the museum, which opened to the public in March this year.

While educating people about beekeeping is an important mandate of the museum, the goals go beyond this. “It is not just about making honey, but also about appreciating and treating bees better,” he says. Bees, after all, are not machines or robots but sentient beings well connected to nature, says Apoorva, who believes that treating domesticated bees well is important. “They are highly evolved, probably more evolved than us, so we really need to appreciate them.”

Although India is still at a nascent stage, as far as commercial beekeeping is concerned, since “it was only after independence that the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) started to promote it for rural employment”, he feels that beekeeping is an ideal livelihood for farmers and tribals of the Western Ghats. Moreover, “honey from the Western Ghats is rich in aroma and flavour. It also has undiscovered medicinal values,” he says, pointing out that, with the increase of tourism in this area, the market value of honey will only go up. “A family in the Western Ghats can earn a minimum of ₹2 lakhs per year if they keep 50 bee colonies.”