What's the impact of an erratic monsoon on the fields? A ground report
rain after the next two weeks, when his paddy will be ready. Any untimely rain will spell disaster for his crop.
The contrast marks the erratic rainfall that marked this southwest monsoon, and its direct impact on the country’s farmers this kharif season.
Officially, this year’s southwest monsoon is set to be classified as normal, with only a 10% deviation from the long period average based on rainfall data from 1971 to 2020. Though August rainfall was the lowest in over a century, the rain in September is expected to make up for the cumulative shortfall despite this being an El Nino year.
“To an extent, deficient rainfall of August should be compensated by good rainfall in September,” Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of meteorology, India Meteorological Department (IMD), tells ET.
While cumulative rainfall might be normal, the deficit in August and excess rain in July in some parts of the country, coupled with a delayed onset of monsoon, have made this a challenging period for farmers, since over half of net sown area in India is dependent on rainfall. The total area covered under kharif crops is the same as last year at 1,088 lakh hectares but the area under cultivation of pulses has shrunk by close to 9% while the acreage of sunflower has seen a steep dip of 65%, on the back of deficient rains.
“This season has seen both spatial and temporal variability.
It’s very difficult for farmers when this happens,” says Vimal Mishra, professor, civil engineering and earth sciences, IIT-Gandhinagar. Gopinath R, principal scientist at MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, says rainfall pattern must be analysed according to the lifecycle of a crop rather than looking at an annual basis, as the institute’s studies have shown.
