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Kharif sowing in north hit by scanty rainfall
Kalyan Ray and Ajith Athrady, New Delhi:
Even though only one week is left for completing the kharif sowing, scanty monsoon rainfall has created severe water shortage in the grain basket of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh leading to a sharp decline in paddy sowing areas.
Madhya Pradesh has announced drought on Thursday based on the rainfall it received in May and June. The scientists, however, are saying that it is too early and one has to wait at least till July 15 to have a preliminary estimate on the drought possibility.
The meteorologists predict no improvement in the monsoon situation for the northwest for the next seven days even though a low pressure zone may form in the Bay of Bengal by Sunday.
“A low pressure zone is likely to come up by July 12-13. But it may be a weak depression and will not push the monsoon rain towards northwest India,” a weather scientist told Deccan Herald.
As of Thursday, the overall deficiency for the country is only 37 per cent because of the downpour along west and east coast, parts of central India and northeast in the last two weeks. However, the northwest produces an entirely different and alarming picture. Till Thursday, the rainfall is deficient by 68 per cent in Punjab, 59 per cent in Haryana, 68 per cent in Himachal Pradesh, 78 per cent in West Uttar Pradesh and 67 per cent in Uttarakhand, sources said.
They all have received either scanty (more than 60 per cent shortfall) or deficient (20-59 per cent shortage) rainfall in the season. The deficiency was even higher in the last week.
The monsoon rainfall in the overall northwest region is deficient by 48 per cent. The shortage has severely affected sowing. Till July 7, paddy was sown in 38.14 lakh hectare against 51.80 lakh ha in the corresponding period last year – a shortage of 13.66 lakh ha.
Most affected
The shortfall is the highest in Punjab where paddy could not be sown in 7.02 lakh ha areas. Sowing is 1.15 lakh ha less in Haryana and 2.05 lakh ha in Uttar Pradesh. The area under coarse cereals was also halved. This year coarse cereals were sown in only 26.60 lakh ha compared to 56.54 lakh ha last year.
Lower coverage in coarse cereal was reported from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Sowing of oilseeds is completed only in 35.58 lakh ha compared to 68.76 lakh ha last year with drastic decline observed in the coverage of soybean in Madhya Pradesh and groundnut in Gujarat. The Union Agriculture Ministry will wait till July 15 – the regular schedule of monsoon reaching west Rajasthan. “If there is no improvement, we will convene a meeting of state agriculture secretaries to discuss the contingency options,” an official said.
