The Hindu Business Line : Anxiety over delay in monsoon

It is June 20 and the aberrant behaviour of southwest monsoon is beginning to cause anxiety and concern. After the initial entry with a bang towards the end of May covering parts of southern and western India, monsoon activity appears to have stalled for nearly three weeks.

SUPPLEMENTAL IRRIGATION

In areas where pre-monsoon sowing took place farmers are anxiously waiting for rains. Supplemental irrigation through well water will of course help.

However, farmers who mistook the initial advent of rains towards end-May for the onset of regular monsoon and planted their crops may be in for trouble, if it does not rain in the next 7-10 days. The planted crops face the risk of getting moisture-stressed.

As the monsoon is yet to set over central and western parts of the country (especially Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan), there would be delay in planting of oilseed crops such as groundnut and soyabean as also coarse grains like maize and pulses (mainly, gram). Indeed, farmers have been asked to defer sowing until rains arrive.

NOT ENCOURAGING

As of date, cloud cover over the peninsular region is not encouraging. There are no strong signs of widespread revival of southwest monsoon anytime soon.

In the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, which is the groundnut bowl of the country, some pre-monsoon sowing did take place in a few areas and farmers are in a position to save the crop with supplemental irrigation, Dr M.S. Basu, director of Junagadh-based National Research Centre for Groundnut told Business Line.

NO GREAT CONCERN

There is no great concern at this point of time about rains because the southwest monsoon usually reaches Saurashtra around June 20 or even by the last week of the month, the scientist asserted. Farmers plant groundnut till mid-July; but most of it would be short-duration varieties.

It is unclear if the Centre and the States have put a contingency plan in place in the event of failure of rains. Major crops planted during the kharif season are paddy, maize, gram, groundnut, soyabean and cotton.