Monsoon reaches Chhattisgarh, Odisha early

The Southwest monsoon has arrived in the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha well ahead of schedule, bringing joy to farmers and authorities alike.

In Chhattisgarh, the monsoon entered the Bastar region on Saturday and is likely to reach the state capital in the next one or two days.

Usually, the monsoon arrives in the state between June 10 and 15. Instead, it arrived on June 8 this time. The state has an average rainfall of about 1,373 millimetres (mm).

In Odisha, the met office confirmed the onset of the monsoon late Saturday evening in southern parts of the state, ahead of its scheduled arrival in the third week of June.

The met department has predicted an increase in rainfall in the next two to three days.

“Light to moderate rain or thundershowers may occur at a few places over the districts of Odisha. The outlook for the next two days would be increase in rainfall,” the local weather office said on its website. In both states, the ahead-of-schedule arrival of the monsoon has elated farmers and authorities.

In Chhattisgarh, the state government has set a target to produce 7 million tonnes (MT) of paddy in the kharif season 2013. Officials now say that with the monsoon arriving early, the target would be achieved easily.

In Odisha, the agromet advisory service of the India Meteorological Department has already asked the farmers to begin sowing to take the advantage of the normal monsoon.

Last week, the state agriculture and food production department had set a food grain production target of 10.1 MT in the kharif season of 2013.

The tentative production target includes 8.73 MT of rice, 0.675 MT of maize, 0.162 MT of ragi, 0.141 MT of arhar, 0.14 MT of moong and 0.152 MT of urad.

For optimum utilisation of surface and ground water resources, the government plans to set up 37,009 private irrigation projects across the state.

The Agriculture Department also is also targetting to disburse crop loans of Rs 6,000 crore to farmers through cooperative societies during 2013-14 at two per cent interest rate.