With the country in the middle of a pandemic, every sector is now looking with caution towards the future. Agriculture is also one of those sectors even though it has performed very well in these testing times. The agriculture sector is now an important part of the government in helping to move over this crisis.
The Agriculture situation is now at a crucial juncture with the sowing of kharif season to begin and also with the monsoons approaching this season is quite important for the farmers to get good crops to help them get over their loss in the previous cycle due to lockdown.
The Monsoon is one of the key phenomenons of Indian Agriculture and farmers depend heavily on it. While, during most years the main cause of concern is the deficiency of rainfall. This year its quite the opposite with many areas in India expected to receive excess rainfall and this has the state and farmers worried. Rabinarayan Sahoo, a farmer in Keonjhar District, Odisha says” Due to excessive rain the fields are filled with more water than what the drainage can handle which leads of large mud blocks that damage the roots of the crops which leads to the crops breaking off. Furthermore, excessive water is favorable or various types of insects that destroy the crops”.
Even last year excessive rainfall caused damage to crops in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra ruining crops like sugarcane, cotton, rice, etc. Besides, the areas receiving excess rainfall is large. Out of the 36 subdivisions of rainfall map of India 20 are expected to have excess rainfall with 14 of those regions set to receive more than 60% of excess rain. Only western Uttar Pradesh, the semi-arid region of Bundelkhand, Jharkhand, and Mizoram are expected to receive less than normal rainfall while Tamil Nadu receives most of its rainfall from the retreating monsoon in January. The excess rainfall could lead to flooding in various areas like Assam, Kerala like in the previous years.
Kerala has already announced the establishment of 9000 relief centers to tackle any untoward incident and a plan from the Union Government should also be formulated to prepare the authorities for it.
