As the southwest monsoon showed signs of revival, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said though the overall rainfall across the country has definitely improved in the last few weeks, it has not changed the prevailing drought-like situation in Karnataka, central Maharashtra, Saurashtra and Kutch, and also in western Rajasthan.
“We are still concerned about protecting the standing crop and planning to call another meeting of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on drought next week,” Pawar told reporters on Wednesday.
He said overall rainfall deficit has narrowed from 36 per cent earlier to 15 per cent in the last few days, which has pushed up sowing of rice and cotton over their normal acreage.
“As on August 8, the total shortfall in area under kharif crops came down from 5.2 million hectares to 0.8 million hectares,” Pawar said. He said the water levels in 84 major reservoirs has also improved in the last few days.
“The crop condition is good in Punjab and Haryana, though these states had received low rainfall in the initial months,” the agriculture minister said. He said a high-level committee under his chairmanship has been constituted to look into different demands made by the state government for drought relief.
The committee also comprises of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.