The Union ministry of agriculture has prepared a district-wise contingency plan to cope with the wavering trend of rainfall, in collaboration with the Indian Ccouncil of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
Already given to states, the plan seeks to push low-gestation seed varieties of crops and seed multiplication varieties to deal with dry spells, drought or deficit rainfall and, for that matter, floods. “The objective is to maintain the yield and productivity of crops in a region despite weather-based adversities,” explained official sources.
ICAR has developed such varieties in paddy, which can provide timely yield despite floods, and oilseeds which can generate yields even when the initial sowing failed to gestate due to dry spells. Such varieties have been developed for all crops in all regions, say official sources. Of 640 districts, a contingency plan has been prepared for 285. These are mainly in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Maharashtra, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
For instance, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where the monsoon has been delayed by two weeks, farmers have been advised to sow short-duration paddy varieties for direct seedling, as well as transplanting. Besides, staggered sowing of paddy nurseries at a 15-day interval is suggested.
In Andhra, for areas where cotton has already been sown and seedlings are withering due to a break in the monsoon, these could be protected by pot watering and application of fertiliser delayed till sufficient soil moisture is available from rains, the plan suggested. Similarly, sowing of paddy nurseries might be taken where groundwater is adequate.
In Karnataka, farmers are advised to choose medium duration varieties of red gram in areas where the rains are delayed by more than two weeks. Intercultivation and mulching may be done to the already sown crops. In the northern part, farmers are advised not to sow green gram and black gram at present and to keep the land fallow in areas where double cropping (moong/sorghum) has been planned, if moong cannot be sown by early July. Mulching is a process of inbred fertlisation which employs decomposed organic materials to blanket an area in which vegetation is desired. The procedure enriches the soil for plant development, while preventing erosion and decreasing the evaporation of moisture from the ground.
Officials explained the impact of rainfall on kharif crops should be analysed not in one month but as an impact of cumulative rainfall over June, July and August. They said in 2004 and 2009, rainfall was deficit in June but heavy rainfall in July resulted in a bumper harvest.
Officials said sowing had just started in the first week of July. State governments and farmers themselves had also prepared contingency plans for substitute cropping in case the initial sowing failed or the rainfall trend reverses.
The weather based agro advisory has also suggested measures for feeding, management and health care of livestock.
