Rains 23% below normal till July 10

Amid an uneven progress of the southwest monsoon upcountry, the food and agriculture ministries held a meeting on Wednesday with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to analyse the extent of low rain and its impact on farming.

Particularly taken up was the issue of low rainfall in Karnataka and Maharashtra, which produce large quantities of coarse cereals and pulses, besides paddy. In fact, the food ministry is working on a proposal to distribute cheap pulses — a scheme that was discontinued on June 30 this year, a senior official said.

The new scheme plans to double the quantum of subsidy to Rs 20 per kilogram, he said. It will target families only below the poverty line.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, briefing about the progress of monsoon and the sowing of kharif (summer) crops, said the rainfall situation has improved in the past 10 days across the country, barring Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra. This, he added, could affect the production of coarse cereals and supply of drinking water.

On the impact of deficient rains on sowing of kharif crops across the country, Pawar said there is no concern about paddy, cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds, as their planting was expected to pick up. “The sowing of rice, the main kharif crop, is in progress,” he said. “There are good rains in Odisha and Chhattisgarh; there should not be any problem in acreage of paddy.”

The planting of groundnut and soyabean, too, is expected to improve as there were “good rains in parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the last two days”.

IMD Director-General L S Rathore, who was present at the meeting, said the rains had covered the entire country, but were still 23 per cent below normal. “It is likely to continue until next week,” he told reporters.

Encouragingly for farmers, “parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan are receiving heavy rains”. The rains, he said, would now shift to the Himalayan, Terai and the northeast region.

In 2011-12 crop year (July-June), good monsoons helped India produce a record 252.56 million tonnes of foodgrains.

Monsoon rains are crucial for the agriculture sector, which contributes about 15 per cent to the country’s GDP, as only 40 per cent of the total cultivable area is under irrigation.