Jaipur: Things are slipping out of hand with the gruelling delays affecting the kharif crops in Rajasthan. Nothing could be said at this stage in regard to the final picture, as the rains have failed to prop up the sowings.The state agriculture department is very much worried over the behaviour of the monsoon and the fear expressed generally is that if it does not rain now, crop failures would be enormous. "The whole economy of the state will be hit hard," says a senior official spokesman.Barely a fortnight ago, there were cheers in the department as the rains had come in time prompting the farmers to take up the cultivation. But now things have dramatically changed with the farmers fearing of the worst times.The monsoon failure is throughout Rajasthan and the danger signals are widespread. "We are worried over the developing crop scenario," says the chief minister, Ashok Gehlot. The Government even could not resort to what is called the `life saving irrigation' as water has got to be preserved for the rabi crop. Pulses have covered 17.34 lakh hectares of land in the state, against 14.44 lakh hectares last year. The production last year of pulses in the state, which include moong, moth, chowla, urad, arhar etc, was 1.34 lakh tonnes only. The low production was due to the failure of rains last year as well.
The kharif cereals have covered 53.45 lakh hectares of the area with bajra covering 38 lakh hectares followed by maize nine lakh hectares. Jowar has covered five lakh hectares and paddy 1.22 lakh hectares.
Last year the kharif cereals had covered 56.30 lakh hectares and the total production was 26.89 lakh tonnes. Bajra had covered 12.99 lakh hectares and the production was 39.30 lakh tonnes. The maize production was 9.64 lakh tonnes in a total area of 9.30 lakh hectares. And in case of jowar the production was 1.73 lakh tonnes when the area was 5.56 lakh hectares.
The position in regard to the kharif oilseeds is also not so good due to the unusual behaviour of the monsoon. The total area covered by the oilseeds is 11.87 lakh hectares and the main (oilseeds) sown in Rajasthan are groundnut, til, soyabean, castor etc. Ground nut has covered 2.99 lakh hectares whereas soyabean has covered 6.12 lakh hectares. In case of till the area covered is 2.99 lakh hectares. Last year the pulses had covered 10.57 lakh hectares with the soyabean covering 4.92 lakh hectares.
The total production of soyabean was six lakh tonnes. In case of ground nut the area covered was 2.74 lakh hectares and its yield was 2.64 lakh tonnes.
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