A delayed monsoon could adversely impact kharif crop sowing, with 315 out of 724 districts possibly receiving deficient rains this season, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Tuesday.
“Monsoon has been delayed and there is 43% deficient rain so far across the country. 111 districts are identified as most vulnerable because they have less than 25% irrigation.,” Chouhan said in a briefing. He said that of these, 20 districts are in Maharashtra, while the rest are across 12 states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Chouhan said 76 districts across 12 states have irrigation facilities in the 25% to 50% range, while 128 districts likely to receive less rainfall this monsoon season have adequate irrigation coverage through dams and canals.
He added that contingency plans have already been prepared for the affected districts, focusing on alternative crops, short-duration varieties, crop diversification, and better use of available water resources such as ponds, reservoirs, check dams, farm ponds, and other water conservation structures.
“States have been advised to promote crops like pulses, coarse grains, and oilseeds, which require less water and can still perform well under difficult conditions,” the minister stated.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, the monsoon is likely to remain weak until the week ending July 2, he stated. Among the worst-affected states, Maharashtra and Gujarat have reported rainfall deficiency of nearly 70% – 74% against the benchmark. Other important kharif crops producing states including Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, have recorded rainfall deficiencies of around 65% to 67% so far.
The progress of the southwest monsoon remained slow with cumulative rainfall being close to 42.3% below the benchmark longer period average (LPA) during June 1 – June 23. This is deep in the ‘deficient’ range.
In terms of regional distribution, all regions show a serious rainfall deficiency: northwest (-19%), east/north-east (-40%), central India (-64%), and south peninsular (-26%).
“Conditions are favourable for the further advance of the southwest monsoon into parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh during the next 2-3 days and remaining parts of Jharkhand and Bihar, some parts of Uttar Pradesh during the subsequent 3-4 days,” according to the IMD forecast on Tuesday.
While kharif sowing remains at par with last year in the first three weeks of June so far, weather forecasts suggest challenges could intensify in the coming months due to the impact of El Nino.
So far, 10% of the total kharif area has been covered by crops including rice, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton. The total acreage of all kharif crops remains higher at 11.79 million hectares as of June 22, compared to 11.3 million hectares in the year-ago period, an agriculture ministry official said.