Though it has been raining heavily in many parts of the country, almost half of Uttar Pradesh is facing drought-like conditions because of inadequate rainfall so far. Thirty districts of Uttar Pradesh are reeling under severe shortfall in rains. Many of these districts have so far received less that five per cent rainfall. As a result, sowing of kharif crop has been delayed. Many farmers are apprehensive and say if drought-like conditions continue for some more time, it would cripple them.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the situation in Chitrakoot, Chandauli, Kaushambi, Mainpuri, Auriya and Fatehpur is quite bad, as these districts have so far received less than 20 per cent of their usual rainfall. Even Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too has been facing drought-like conditions.
The directorate of agriculture (Uttar Pradesh) has issued an alert on the issue.
According to director (agriculture), Saroj Singh, the department will wait till July 31 and if the state does not get adequate rains till then, it will send a report to the government.
Pankaj Tiwari, a farmer near Lucknow, says, so far, his village received just two spells of rain, which too were inadequate. “If it does not rain in coming few days, then I won’t be able to sow anything.”
In most of the districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, it rained less than 30 per cent, while many districts of western UP have received little over 40 per cent rainfall.
Because of drought-like conditions, crops could be sown on 36 per cent of the area. In absolute terms, this comes to around 35 lakh hectares, while last year, this area was around 50 lakh hectares in the same period.
In the entire state, kharif crops are sown over 94 lakh hectares of agricultural land.
Apart from agriculture department, the revenue department of the state is also assessing the magnitude of drought in the state and will send its report to the government soon.