Drought worsens in northwest belt

Even irrigated crops are not in good shape.

The drought situation is turning grim in the northwestern region, including the country's main grain bowl of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

Even the irrigated crops are not in good shape in many areas in this region. Rajasthan's agriculture has almost totally collapsed due to monsoon failure.

Though the cropped acreage was more or less normal in this belt, thanks to irrigation and good pre-monsoon rainfall in the middle of June, the standing crops have now started withering at many places for want of moisture and good quality ground water.

The availability of power is also inadequate despite the state government's efforts to divert more power to this sector. Farmers are incurring heavy costs running their irrigation pumps with diesel and other energy sources.

In Rajasthan, only about 10 per cent of the area has been brought under cultivation so far. Even these crops are slowly drying up.

According to the latest information available with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), crop position is deteriorating fast in Punjab and Haryana.

"The available groundwater is of poor quality, largely brackish, in about 65 per cent of the areas in Haryana and about 20 per cent of the area in southwest Punjab. Lack of rain has resulted in sub-surface salts rising to the plant root zone, hurting standing crops", ICAR deputy director-general JS Samra told Business Standard.

He suggested that this water could be made fit for irrigation in some areas by treating it with gypsum. Where some canal water was available, it could be mixed with saline underground water to improve the overall water quality, Samra added.

In Haryana, cotton, paddy and sugarcane crops are displaying symptoms of moisture stress. The rainfed crops sown in May and June are drying up. In many cases, the unirrigated crops have already withered. The situation is quite bad in the south-western districts of Haryana.

In Punjab, most farmers are reported to be running their tubewells on power generators or tractors due to shortage of electricity. This is adding to the cost of cultivation.

The crop situation is grim in the south-western districts of Bhatinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Sangrur, Mansa and Mukatsar where the underground water is of poor quality.

In Uttaranchal, too, crops over a sizable area have begun withering due to a break in the monsoon.

In Rajasthan, where even grass has not begun sprouting so far during this season, an acute scarcity of fodder is feared.

Samra suggested that, instead of migrating the animals to the neighbouring states, cattle camps should be set up along the canals where drinking water and some fodder supplies were available.

"Where fodder shortage is feared, the state governments should take a policy decision to discourage cultivation of cotton in the areas fed by canals and produce green fodder there", Samra said. The only dependable source of dry fodder would be rice straw in the irrigated tracts.

Special arrangements were needed to tap this source because normally the farmers tended to burn the stubs left in the field after harvesting the crop. The straw would also have to enriched by treating it with urea to improve its nutritional quality, he added.