Pre-monsoon showers fail to allay fears of low soy crop output

Sporadic pre-monsoon showers in Malwa and Nimar regions of Madhya Pradesh in the last few days have failed to allay fears of low crop output due to delayed sowing.

Local Met officials said Malwa-Nimar region ""Central India's key soy growing area "" received 30.4 millimetres of rainfall since June 18.

"These pre-monsoon showers are too little, too late as sowing, which should have started by June 15, is already delayed by around 10 days," Meherban Singh, a farmer from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, said.

Singh owns around 100 acres of land and cultivates mostly soybean during the kharif season starting June.

The output will be hit, as farmers who would have sown most of the seeds by now have not even completed their field preparation.

"Sporadic pre-monsoon rains will not change our outlook for this year as sowing is already delayed," another farmer said.

Some farmers said inconsistent rains before soybean sowing is sometimes harmful for the crop as frequent changes in the soil temperature makes seed germination difficult.

Also, de-weeding chemicals spread in fields before sowing gets spoiled due to erratic rains, another farmer said.

Pre-monsoon showers have made the soil sticky and difficult for smooth operation of seed drill machines and bullocks, Gajanand Mandloi, a farmer from Kasarwad tehsil of the state, said.

Local Met officials said that Malwa-Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh received merely 30.4 millimetres of rainfall from Sunday to Tuesday Rainfall varied between 0.4 millimetres to 23.6 millimetres.

"The low pressure area built over Northwest Arabian Sea led to moderate pre-monsoon showers in parts of Madhya Pradesh since Jun. 18. However, the area has subsequently weakened due to which monsoon will take another six to seven days to reach Madhya Pradesh," a senior official at the India Meteorological Department said.

Meanwhile, farmers in Madhya Pradesh have decided not to wait any longer for the rains to start and have decided to start sowing by June end.

"We have to start sowing by June whether monsoon arrives or not because sowing after June 30 will lead to drastic fall in crop output," Mandloi, who owns around 100 acres of agricultural land, said.

Echoing his views, Meherban Singh also said that sowing will have to anyway start by June end or else the crop output will be low.

"Already soybean sowing is delayed by over 10 days due to late arrival of monsoon, if we wait for some more days, the final crop output will be negligible," Singh added.

Soy scientists also recommended the farmers to complete sowing by first week of July. "Ideally, soybean sowing should be completed by July 5 to get the maximum output of soybean," a senior scientist at city-based National Research of Soybean said.

Soybean, a key kharif crop is sown mostly in June-July and harvested in October-November.

Madhya Pradesh is the premier soy-growing belt of the country accounting for more than 65 per cent of the country's total production. The southwest monsoon is critical for soybean crop, as large tracts of land in Central India do not have proper irrigation facility.

---

Damp squib

• These pre-monsoon showers are too little, too late as sowing, which should have started by June 15, is already delayed by around 10 days
• Local Met officials said Malwa-Nimar region ""Central India's key soy growing area "" received 30.4 millimetres of rainfall since June 18
• The output will be hit, as farmers who would have sown most of the seeds by now have not even completed their field preparation