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If rains don?t arrive soon, a drought might
The UPA government is gearing up for what could be its greatest challenge so far: a bad monsoon. The cabinet secretary will hold a meeting to assess its possible impact on agricultural production on Tuesday, but early signs do not look good.
The UPA government is gearing up for what could be its greatest challenge so far: a bad monsoon. The cabinet secretary will hold a meeting to assess its possible impact on agricultural production on Tuesday, but early signs do not look good.
The monsoon is two weeks late; indications are that it will weaken as it sweeps over north India; and reports suggest that there are "early signs of a drought".
Sources in the agriculture ministry do not agree with that assessment. Officials concede, however, that there has been a rainfall deficit in large swathes of north India. Should this continue till July 15, a contingency plan would have to be put in place, say officials.
With the monsoon having slowed down, the sowing of several kharif crops has been thrown off schedule. Ministry sources claim sowing is behind only on coarse cereals like jowar and bajra (mainly in Rajasthan), but reports suggest that crops like paddy and oilseeds are a cause for concern as well.
About a third of the area under oilseed cultivation should have been sown in early July, but hasn't. The area under oilseed cultivation is also down by a sixth this year. And the paddy acreage in Uttar Pradesh will be down about 80,000 hectares. Some farmers have also started reploughing their fields because the condition of the sown crops isn't very good.
Meanwhile, the director general of the Indian Meteorological Department, S.K. Srivastava, said even though the two week lull in the monsoon is a cause of concern, there's no need to panic. In fact, says Srivastava, if the monsoon comes in pulses, it will be good for agriculture.
Though the cloud cover over the Bay of Bengal looks fairly healthy, officials say they are ready with a contingency plan. This would include the supply of high-yielding and drought resistant seeds, provision of fertilisers, repairs to irrigation systems in dry areas and emergency supply of fodder for livestock.
