Srinagar, June 28 -- As is clear from the media reports, 10 Chief Engineer posts and hundreds of engineering positions in the Jal Shakti Department lie vacant at the peak of the irrigation season. This is not just a bureaucratic failure, but a dereliction of duty. The farmers from parts of the Valley are witnessing dry canals, defunct lift irrigation systems, idle tube wells, and dying crops. For a region whose economy is still largely rooted in agriculture, this is nothing short of an emergency.

The irrigation crisis didn't appear overnight. It has built up over years of underinvestment in infrastructure, erratic policy focus, and now, a crippling manpower shortage. Creeping climate change has only further aggravated it. This summer has...