Delayed rains: Gujarat prepares contingency plan for farmers

Weather department has forecasted no movement of the monsoon since June 15

With delay in onset of monsoon over Gujarat, the state government machinery has swung into action and come out with a contingency plan for kharif crop and begun coordination meeting with district administration to take stock of the water, fodder and other local requirements.

The step by the state government comes in backdrop of weather department stating that there was no movement of the monsoon since June 15. Normally, onset of monsoon over the state begins in the second week of June in south and central Gujarat region and later extends to north and Kutch region by late third and fourth week of June.

But this year there has been no progress of monsoon since June 15, said director of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in Ahmedabad, Jayant Sarkar. “There has been onset of monsoon in some parts of south Gujarat and coastal Saurashtra. However, there has been no progression of monsoon and it is likely to remain the same till June 30,” Sarkar said. He expected no change in the condition of monsoon for the next 4-5 days. “Only after June 30 we would be able to say about further progress of monsoon. But we are hopeful that the monsoon system becomes active in first week of July,”  Sarkar added.

Meanwhile, source in the agriculture department said that they have initiated coordination meeting with district administration to take stock of the prevailing situation on water, fodder and cattle. Those farmers who have started sowing have been advised not to go for oil seeds or wait till July 10 when the rains are expected.

The state agriculture department’s contingency plan is basically to assist farmers in different scenarios like delayed monsoon, heavy rains and long dry spell after initial rains. The plan is aimed to mitigate any unexpected, unusual, unfavorable and hence unwanted accidental weather situation as well as El Nino like weather occurring at any time, before the crops are sown or even after the crop are sown.

As per the plan, the state government has suggested crop planning based on the degree of onset of monsoon for middle and south Gujarat, north Gujarat and Saurashtra-Kutch region.

For the current scenario when there is delay in onset of monsoon, the farmers in north Gujarat have been advised to go for sesame and pulses like black gram, green gram, guar, jowar, castor and sunflower, instead of cotton.

While for the farmers in Saurahstra region it has been suggested to avoid sowing only groundnut. They have been asked to sow bunch type variety of groundnut with inter-cropping of pigeon pea, castor and sesame.

According to the agriculture department’s latest estimates irrigation facility is available for 4.24 million hectares, which includes 1.79 million hectares to be irrigated through Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) project.

The contingency plan further explained that the ground water resources are relatively limited and some of the ground water resources are almost fully exploited in various parts of the state to the point of ecological degradation and there was an urgent need to curb the over exploitation of water and the only alternative left was augmentation of water resources through surface water.

Gujarat has received about 3 per cent of rainfall till date with as many as 103 talukas yet to receive rain for this season. Sowing has been done in 0.94 million hectare area till June 25 this year against 2.60 million hectares in the corresponding period last year.