Urgent need to change agri- farm calender of Kerala

Although the monsoon has officially set in Kerala, but its late arrival has already set alarm bells ringing among the state's agricultural experts, who want a drastic overhaul of the annual agriculture calender in 'God's own country'.

They listed the flip side of the late arrival of southwest monsoon, saying there is every possibility of the paddy and other crops being affected by this.

Experts predicted apossible decrease in yield of vegetables, fruits and other crops-as it effects the pollination and an increase in pests, --this ultimately effects crop loss.

Agriculture Officer Vyasan, who is based in Cherthalla in Alleppey District, said: "There is an urgent need to change the annual agri calendar, especially in Kerala due to the shift in temperatures, humidity and delay in the monsoon, which is leading to wrong weather forecasts for farmers, who end up with heavy losses."

Already some remedial measures are being taken in Alleppey District, which is known as the rice bowl of Kerala.

Here, farmers, with the help of agricultural scientists, are making changes to existing Pokkalli farming techniques for sowing and pest control methods, mainly in the Kuttanadu region.

This annual agri farm calendar gives them an idea of how to use the protection of sand and water during harvesting months.

Methods of cattle farming and how to rear domestic animals are also described in this calendar.

For the last few years, Kerala has been experiencing severe drought, followed by acute scarcity of drinking water.

The rivers hardly contain any water during the summer months, and only a few reservoirs and lakes get filled up during the monsoon season.

More and more household wells and ponds are running dry in the summer.

The water resource situation will be much worse in Kerala. if the deficit in monsoon rainfall is very high.

Kerala's water resources are fully dependent on rainfall. Whereas, in addition to rainfall, most of the rivers in the north of the country are recharged by the melting of snow.

Kerala is situated in the humid tropics which receives an annual average rainfall of about 3062mm, which is about 2.5 times more than the national average.

It has been observed that for many years it has deviated from the normal.

The occurrence of annual rainfall is termed as normal if its deviation is between plus or minus 19 percentage of the normal rainfall.

The state has two monsoon seasons, the first being the southwest monsoon (June to September) and the other being the northeast monsoon (October to November). The southwest monsoon is more predominant.

About 85 per cent of the annual rainfall is received during the monsoon period between June and November. The remaining 15 per cent is received during the non-monsoon period between December and May.