Farmers fear that if monsoon continues to play truant, it will reduce the yield of Kharif crops and drive up the input cost. As per the India Meteorological Department, the rainfall recorded in Haryana in the month of July has been 34% below normal so far. The state only received 58mm of scattered rainfall against the normal (87.4mm) this month. Rainfall in June was also 12% below normal with the state recording 57.8mm rainfall between June 1 to July 10 against the normal 86.2mm. Rainfall has eluded the region for the last three weeks. The dry spell commenced soon after the transplantation of paddy officially began on June 15. In the meantime, the government has extended the electricity supply to agriculture feeders from 8 hours to 10 hours. However, farmers say groundwater is not enough and rainfall was needed to help nurture the crop. A farmer, Mahinder Pal, who owns five acres of land with his three brothers in Sherpur village of Karnal district, said, “We have two tubewells for 34 acres of land under paddy cultivation. Most of the fields are dry as the tubewell water is not sufficient. We need rainfall to revive our dying crop,” he said . May have to switch to other crops: Farmer Suresh Pal, a small farmer from Ladwa of Kurukshetra district, said, “We delayed transplantation as it was predicted that it will rain on July 2, but later weather officials predicted that monsoon will arrive on July 9. However, rainfall is yet to arrive. If it does not rain in the next couple of days, we will have to grow other crops.” Dr ML Khichar, agro-meteorologist, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, said after June 26 the weather generally becomes dry. “From July 11, a low-pressure area will form over the Bay of Bengal. Monsoon activity is likely to increase over North-West India, especially Haryana, due to which a good amount of rainfall is expected in the state in the next three to four days,” he said, predicting that rainfall and thundershowers will continue till July 15. Officials in the state agriculture department said there has been no major impact on paddy acreage, especially in assured irrigation zones. They said nothing can be said about areas where farmers are yet to sow the crop as they are waiting for it to rain before starting paddy transplantation. “The transplantation of lateral varieties such as Basmati have been delayed. The cost of irrigation has been increased to some extent,” said Pradeep Meel, deputy director, agriculture, Kurukshetra. On the other hand, Pal Singh, owner of Dhaliwal Seed Farm in Chiba village, Kurukshetra, said this year he had only sold saplings on six acres of his nursery against last year’s 40 acres. “Most farmers, especially in Ambala, Kaithal and Patiala districts, could not sow paddy due to lack of rainfall,” he said. Source - https://www.hindustantimes.com