Paddy cultivation area dips due to water scarcity

Ashok B Sharma

New Delhi, June 3: Though the pre-monsoon rainfall for the country this year has been normal, the farmers in the country are not encouraged to go for higher area coverage for paddy cultivation.

Pre-monsoon rains came late, only to soak the dry soil. The usual sowing period for autumn (early kharif) paddy is from March to May. As per the latest report available from various states, the area coverage under paddy is about 6.65 lakh hectare as compared to 6.71 lakh hectare covered in the corresponding period last year.

Major autumn paddy growing states are Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. The reasons for farmers not been encouraged to go for larger coverage under paddy crop is due to low water availability in many states. There was deficient rainfall in about 45 per cent of the geographical area of the country in the previous year’s monsoon and following it the rains in the post-monsoon period and in winter were poor. Some areas like Rajasthan, Gujarat and MP experienced drought for two consecutive years.

There has been over-exploitation of groundwater in many places of the country leading to depletion of groundwater table. The water availability in 70 major reservoirs in the country is also the lowest in the decade.

The total water availability in 70 reservoirs by May 25, this year was 22.32 TMCum or only 17 per cent of the storage capacity at full reservoir level (FRL).

This year, weekly decline in water level recorded on May 25 was 1.47 TMCum.