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Chandigarh: As the rains have been playing truant after south-west monsoon hit the region ten days back, it has made the farmers of Punjab and Haryana a worried lot, with only glimmer of hope being the Met forecast which promises rains in the region over this weekend.
To deal with the situation, Haryana drew up a contingency plan during current kharif season, even as short supply of vegetables in the region have made their prices hit through the roof.
"At the moment, the situation looks pretty bad and if it does not rain over the next 2-3 days, it will make things worse. We have drawn up a contingency plan to deal with the situation," Haryana's agriculture minister H S Chatha said on phone from Kurukshetra. He said his advice to the farmers is that they should maintain and take care of the paddy crop which they have already sown rather than going for sowing of more water-guzzling paddy at this stage.
The main objective of the plan drawn up at a meeting of field officers of the Haryana's Agriculture Department here today to deal with abnormal monsoon and deficient rains, is to minimize reduction in agriculture production despite adverse climatic conditions by way of selecting appropriate varieties of crops or appropriate alternate crop and production technologies.
Under the plan, the State has been divided into two zones which include north and eastern zones of the state and an awareness campaign would be shortly launched for the implementation of this contingent crop plan. As against a rainfall of 230 mm received in June-July period last year, Haryana has so far received only 35 mm of rain from June 1 onwards this year.
The State Agriculture Department has set a target of sowing paddy in the area of 11.50 lakh hectares during current kharif season, out of which 7.15 lakh hectares has been covered.
Chatha said despite odds, the Hooda government was purchasing power at higher rates to ensure that people, especially the farmers could run their tubewells so that their crops did not suffer much damage.
In view of the hot weather conditions, which have been prevailing in the region for the past few weeks now, both urban and rural consumers in Punjab and Haryana are reeling under power cuts ranging between 8-12 hours daily. This year, the target area in Punjab to be brought under paddy cultivation was 26 lakh hectares, with the production target...
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