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 groundwaterR. 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.