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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Modi faces first challenge: India heading for a drought year -Akash Vashishtha

Modi faces first challenge: India heading for a drought year -Akash Vashishtha

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published Published on Jun 11, 2014   modified Modified on Jun 11, 2014
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New Delhi: And this dread scenario could well unfold, with the Met prediction of a below-normal monsoon on Monday being underlined by Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh who admitted that the forecast is of below-average rainfall. Precipitation in the June-September period is expected to be between 90 and 96 per cent of the long-term average, added the minister. What he didn't say was that the India Meteorological Department puts the chances of a drought at 33 per cent.

In a report released on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast that monsoon rainfall would be 90 to 96 per cent of the average of 89 cm for the 1951-2000 period. This will put the monsoon in the "belownormal" category. Experts said that lower rainfall could lower grain yields, push up food prices and hurt the economy. Significantly, the IMD's long-range forecast update for the southwest monsoon warned that the chance of the monsoon being "deficient" or less than 90 per cent of the long period average (LPA) is 33 per cent.

This means there is a one-in-three chance of a drought. The chances of occurrence of El Nino weather phenomenon, which can cause drought in South Asia, are more than 70 per cent, the IMD said. The four-month monsoon season has started on a weak note as rains arrived over southern India about five days behind the regular date of June 1. A monsoon is considered normal if rainfall is between 96 and 104 per cent of the LPA. In quantitative terms, monsoon rainfall for the country is likely to be 93 per cent of the LPA, with a model error of plus or minus 4 per cent, the IMD said. What is more worrying is that the seasonal rainfall may be just 85 per cent of the LPA of 615 mm for northwest India, the principal area producing 55 per cent of the country's foodgrains. The region is also vital for crops like paddy, wheat, maize, jowar, groundnut, black gram, green gram, pigeon pea cotton and sugarcane.

Side-effects

A weak monsoon may also adversely affect the sowing of paddy in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. For central India, which produces jowar, soybean, maize, sunflower, cotton, groundnut and sugarcane, rainfall is likely to be 94 per cent of the region-specific long term average of 975.5 mm while for the South Peninsula, where pigeon pea, green gram, black gram, rice, sunflower, jowar and groundnut is cultivated, rains are likely to be 93 per cent of the LPA of 715.5 mm. North-east India, which primarily produces rice and horticultural crops, is expected to receive 99 per cent of the LPA of 1438.3 mm between June and September, the met office said.

According to D.S. Pai, Director of the National Climate Centre at IMD, rainfall over the country as a whole in July is likely to be 93 per cent of the LPA of 289.2 mm. In August, it is expected to be 96 per cent of the LPA of 261.3 mm. Even President Pranab Mukherjee addressed the drought fear in his address to a joint session of Parliament on Monday. "My government is alert about the possibility of a subnormal monsoon this year and contingency plans are being prepared," he said, adding that the government would complete long-pending irrigation projects on priority and launch the "Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana" with the motto of "Har Khet Ko Paani".

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said contingency plans and sufficient food stocks were already in place. Crop contingency plans have been developed for 500 of about 540 agricultural districts by the Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture with state agricultural universities and state governments, the agriculture ministry said.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), which sends advisories to farmers twice a week on the basis of IMD's forecasts, however, sent out some signs of hope for farmers. "There is not much to worry about, as the production of crops depends much upon the distribution of rainfall in a given region. There should not be prolonged dry gaps between any two spells and it should occur uniformly, as that gives the optimum moisture required by crops," said JPS Dabas, a principal scientist with IARI.

"Further, there is not much to worry since Punjab, Haryana and western UP, the main foodgrain regions, are irrigated. The yield of crops will not be affected much and we can still achieve the desired level of production and perhaps even more," he said.

GOVT GEARING UP TO TACKLE DROUGHT

UNION Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Monday said he would be moving a Cabinet note soon to introduce a diesel subsidy scheme for farmers which would enable them to irrigate crops in the event of a rainfall deficit.

"We are fully geared up to face any drought situation. We are alert and seriously working on measures to meet any eventuality arising out of drought or deficit rainfall situation,"Singh said. "We will soon move a Cabinet note seeking approval for introduction of a diesel subsidy scheme for providing protective irrigation to standing crops in rainfall deficit areas," the minister added.

During the drought years in 2009 and 2012, the previous UPA government had announced a 50 per cent diesel subsidy for farmers in rainfall deficit areas. According to sources, the agriculture ministry is working on a similar scheme. Singh said his ministry is working on a Cabinet note to seek permission on six key measures much in advance so that they can be implemented quickly if the states declare a drought. The other Cabinet proposals include rescheduling crop loans and providing interest subvention in drought-hit areas. "It proposes to raise the subsidy ceiling to buy seeds," he said.


India Today, 10 June, 2014, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/narendra-modi-faces-first-challenge-india-drought-year/1/366105.html


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