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Measuring rainfall has become part of their daily activity for some farmers in high-rainfall areas. Naturally, the rainfall trends this year are also an area of interest for many.
PGSN Prasad, an arecanut grower from Balila village (80 km from Mangaluru) in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, has been recording the rainfall statistics in his village for the past 45 years.
Though recording rainfall figures is a common practice for many coffee planters in Karnataka since several decades, not much farmers showed interest for this arecanut-growing regions of Dakshina Kannada district till recently.
Prasad, who started recording rainfall statistics in his area from 1976, told BusinessLine that his area received rainfall for 202 days till December 10, 2021, breaking a 43-year-old record on the highest number of days of rainfall in his village.
Breaking records
On an average, his village receives rainfall for around 165 days in a calendar year, and witnesses 200 days of sunny days. “The situation is opposite this year with the village receiving 202 days of rainfall,” he said.
Referring to the statistics of previous years, he said his region had received rainfall for 201 days in 1978. “That was the highest number of rainfall days till the rainfall on December 10 breaking that record,” Prasad said.
Though he started keeping a record of rainfall figures in 1976, his father was doing it since 1963. The 2021 figures of rainfall days are the highest in the last 58 years, as the records maintained by his father did not show such a trend, he said.
Also read: How excess North-East Monsoon rainfall is affecting agriculture across India
Though his region received rainfall for 202 days in 2021, it got 4,923 mm rainfall till December 10. The rainfall figures stood at 6,195 mm when his village got rainfall for 201 days in 1978.
During 1986 and 2017, his village had received rainfall for 144 days in a year. The number of rainfall days was the lowest during these two years in the last 45 years of his experience with rainfall record keeping. The figures were the highest at 6,443 mm in 1980 when his village received rainfall for 191 days.
WhatsApp group and tools
His village has been receiving rains every month since March 2020, he said. Prasad, who maintains a WhatsApp group of people who started recording rainfall data in the recent years, said there is a need to have rain gauges in every 3.5 km radius.
This will help get a correct picture of the rainfall distribution pattern in different places and take measures to tackle issues related to rainfall. Members in his WhatsApp group share real-time info on the rainfall related matters in their area. This is helping other members in their surroundings.
He said rainfall related information shared by a member in a group on December 9 helped others to cover arecanut in their drying yard before rains hit their areas.
Stating that the unseasonal rainfall this year has made an impact on the arecanut crop in the region, he said continuous rainfall in the past few days led to the rotting of the harvested arecanut crop in some plantations as farmers could not carry out sun-drying activities.
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