Worst impact of poor monsoon likely to be in west India: Government

New Delhi: The worst impact of a sub-normal monsoon is likely to be in western India, with possible drought-like conditions in some areas, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Tuesday.

“Monsoon is delayed. Western India is expected to be worst affected and drought-like situation might prevail in some pockets,” Singh told reporters after a delegation from Maharashtra met him on this matter.

A separate contingency plan will be worked out along with the state governments for drought-prone regions, such as Vidharbha in Maharashtra, to ensure there is no shortage of drinking water and fodder, he said.

“Vidharbha region is drought-prone. We will think of all possible measures to help farmers so that they are not forced to commit suicide due to crop failure,” he added.

As per the Met Department, the monsoon is likely to improve after July 6, the minister said, adding, “If it improves, the loss in sowing of kharif crops will definitely be compensated.”

He also said the Agriculture Ministry will soon move a cabinet note on providing diesel and seed subsidy if states declare drought in some areas.

On vegetable prices rising in anticipation of a poor monsoon, Singh said, “We have to improve the supply system, though there is no shortage in onion and potato production in the country.”

A delegation-led by Maharashtra BJP President Devendra Fadanvis updated the minister about the monsoon situation in the Vidharbha region and sought special measures to tackle the possible drought this year.

The overall area under kharif crops last week decreased to 131.52 lakh hectares (a lakh is 100,000) from 200.96 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. Sowing of kharif (summer) crops including paddy starts with the onset of the southwest monsoon in June.

According to the India Meteorological Department, the monsoon this year is expected to be 93 per cent of the long-term average. For the country as a whole, the cumulative rainfall up to June 25 was 40 per cent below the average. Conditions are expected to improve in July and August.

“If there is insufficient rain in the next few days, some farmers may start selling animals for slaughtering,” said Jai Prakash Sharma, manager of a cooperative in the northern state of Haryana that supplies milk to the country’s capital, New Delhi.

As dairy farmers fret over the risk to earnings due to the vagaries of the monsoon, the squeeze in supplies of milk is adding to inflationary pressures that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government inherited when it came to power in May.

Even without unpredictable weather, ensuring supplies of dairy products is emerging as a long-term policy headache in a country of 1.2 billion people where a sustained period of rising incomes has changed diets and lifted demand for protein.

India’s much-acclaimed dairy co-operative model helped it to emerge as the world’s largest milk producer in what became known as a “white revolution”.

But a system that relies on millions of farmers each owning a few low-yielding cattle, is now not enough, as India’s cows’ average milk yield of 2 to 3 litres per day is about one-tenth of the global average.

Earlier this month the government imposed export restrictions on a raft of farm commodities and ordered a crackdown on hoarding to control rising food prices, after wholesale price inflation hit a five-month high.