Centre assures States of support if monsoon is delayed more

The Centre today assured States of adequate availability of short-duration seeds that may be required in the case of further delay in monsoon, even as it maintained that there is no cause for worry at this moment and monsoon would revive shortly.     

Union Agriculture Secretary T Nanda Kumar today held a meeting with his counterparts in states that have so far not received rainfall like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to disuss the current situation arising due to delay in monsoon and contingency plan in the case of a possible failure of monsoon.     

"There is no cause of worry if monsoon arrives by June-end. The States have been assured that there is enough seed availability to meet the demand in case short-duration seed is required," a senior official in the Agriculture Ministry said after the meeting.     

Scientists are hopeful that the situation would not deteriorate if the rains come in a week, he added.     

The meeting also discussed the availability of water in the reservoirs and it was felt that the water level would go up once the monsoon arrives and water would be available to farmers for irrigation, sources said.