The Hindu Business Line : Elusive monsoon has Gujarat govt worried

Gandhinagar, Aug. 26 With this year’s monsoon rains playing truant for weeks together, Gujarat is no longer expecting a repeat of the last few years’ record farm output and agricultural growth of 9.6 per cent.

It may now have to revise its estimates to average production with 14 out of 26 districts facing the possibility of a drought after almost nine years of good rains.

Early this month, the State Government believed that unlike many other States, Gujarat could still emerge as a ‘silver lining’, what with the Saurashtra region being blessed by good rains in mid-July and some other areas in the first week of August; some traditionally dry areas such as Porbander and Junagarh were even threatened with floods!

But after this initial spell, the rains in the States have almost completely dried up, worrying officials and farmers alike.

Hoping for rains

“We still hope for a return of the rains in the next few days. Although harvesting of some kharif crops, like groundnut, has begun in some areas, we are keeping our fingers crossed and would have a clear picture of the estimated production only next week,” the Agriculture Minister, Mr Dilip Sanghani, told Business Line here..

After assessing the damage, the State Government is likely to declare the driest districts as drought-hit in the next week or so. The Minister who participated in the State Agriculture Ministers’ meeting at New Delhi on August 21, said with the near-total absence of rains during the last three weeks, the State Government is worried at the looming drought in 14 districts, particularly in North, Central and South Gujarat.

The Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, recently announced the construction of one lakh “bori-bunds” (temporary bunds) to check the wastage of water wherever and whenever it rained. But the clouds have played hide-and-seek on a daily basis.

Despite a delayed start, a near-normal rainfall early until this month had the farmers complete sowing in almost 94 per cent of the 87 lakh hectares of targeted cultivable land. But only 55 per cent of the 900 mm average annual rainfall was recorded until mid-August, compared to 69 per cent during the same period last year.

If it still rains, cotton farmers expect a yield of 105 per cent compared to the last year’s one crore bales. But the elusive monsoon may even result in the seeds sown so far being destroyed.

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