Estimates from the state agricultural department have said that kharif crop production will come down drastically in many of the 19,059 villages that are staring at a drought-like situation. The state government has declared water scarcity in these villages as their rainfall share was less than 50% this monsoon.

As per official estimates, production of crops such as soybean, cotton, bajra, maize, 'tur' or split pigeon peas will come down by 40 to 50% in 22 districts in the state, following deficient rainfall in June this year, senior state department officials have said.

The affected districts are Satara, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Jalna, Beed, Amravati, Aurangabad, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nandurbar, Latur, Osmanabad, Akola, Yavatmal, Wardha, Washim, Buldhana, Nagpur, Bhandara and Chandrapur.

Worst affected are Amravati district and the eight districts in the Marathwada region, said a senior official.

"There seems to be large production and area loss when it comes to crops such as bajra, maize, split pigeon peas, mung bean, black gram, cotton and soybean because of the dry spell in June this year," the official added.

The agriculture department set out to collect data on villages that are likely to face crop yield losses due to a deficient monsoon season, after the state government declared as many as 19,059 villages in the state as facing a drought-like situation.

These villages had been assessed for their rainfall deficiency as well as the crop yield recorded after crop cutting experiment for the 2014-15 kharif season.

As per the assessment, 1,166 of these villages are from Nashik district, 1,307 from Aurangabad, 1,575 from Nanded, 1,377 from Beed, 1,981 from Amravati, 1,420 from Buldhana, 525 from Nagpur and 1,049 from Wardha, among others.

The state government has declared various measures to be implemented to help farmers in these villages - from 33.5% waiver in their electricity bills to a rebate in examination fees for students of class X and XII, as well as freedom from cess charged on crops.

Compensation to the tune of Rs 4,500 per hectare for dry land farms, Rs 9,000 per hectare for irrigated land and Rs 12,000 per hectare for perennial crops has been sought from the Union government.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/