The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shortfall in sowing of kharif crops

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shortfall in sowing of kharif crops

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. Even as there is a shortfall compared to last year in the area sown under kharif paddy, sugarcane, coarse cereals and pulses, the Centre today directed all Ministries concerned — including the Ministry of Food and Agriculture — to prepare advance contingency plans to meet the deficient rainfall.

States where rainfall has been deficient so far have been directed to be ready with an alternate cropping plan if the monsoon remains weak till July 15 to July 30 or August 15. Only after that would the areas in question be considered as drought affected.

This emerged after a meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, B.K. Chaturvedi, with Secretaries of the concerned Departments including Food, Drinking Water, Women and Child Welfare and Rural Development, besides Agriculture.

The Secretary, Radha Singh, said the meeting reviewed the situation and each Ministry was asked to chalk out its action plan. As of now, there is a shortfall of 2 lakh hectares in the areas sown under rice, 24 lakh tonnes in coarse cereals, 15.6 lakh tonnes in pulses and 8 lakh tonnes in sugarcane.

According to the update on medium-range weather prediction, based on analysis as on July 12, a revival of monsoon is expected around July 16, although Rajasthan, west Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Telangana in Andhra Pradesh are likely to remain deficient in rainfall. The situation may improve in Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh and in west Uttar Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu. The northwest India, including Punjab, Haryana and hilly regions, may receive scanty rain during this period.

The States, where rain had been deficient, had been directed to consider alternate cropping plan and contingency plans. Telangana, for instance, has been asked to go in for pigeon pea, pearl millet, maize and sunflower between July 15 and 30. Western Madhya Pradesh has been given the alternate plan for sowing maize, pigeon pea, castor, sunflower, sesame and cowpea between July 15 and 30.

Ms. Singh said there was "no panic situation'' so far, but the Ministry of Agriculture had despatched Central teams to the rain-deficient States to assess the situation on cultivated crop.

She said there had been some increase in the acreage of cotton and oilseeds this year over last year. The availability of fertilizers was also comfortable.

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