Why in news?
Maharashtra government has identified 201 talukas in 32 districts as facing water scarcity and drought-like conditions.
What is the recent crisis?
- Large parts of Maharashtra, North Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and North Karnataka are reeling under drought.
- Marathwada region of Maharashtra seems the worst affected.
- The southwest monsoon rains were, in fact, quite good in most of these areas during June-July.
- The monsoon’s timely arrival led to the area sown under kharif crops being more or less normal.
- But drought conditions have been induced by monsoon failure in the second half of the season.
- Farmers were caught unaware by the extended dry spell from August.
- By this time, their already planted crops were in the late vegetative growth stage.
What is the impact?
- Farmers with some irrigation facilities would well have saved their crop.
- In the event, the yield losses from late-season moisture stress may have been minimal.
- But even these farmers are in no position to plant a rabi crop.
- It's because there’s hardly any soil and subsoil moisture left to allow rabi cropping.
- Evidently, the Union Agriculture Ministry’s latest sowing data for the current rabi season shows a 16% drop in crop area so far.
- While rabi plantings will continue for the next one month, the trend is unlikely to reverse in this period.
- This is particularly the case in the above said states/regions where the drought situation is most serious.
- But the problem is not simply that of farmers being unable to grow crops (wheat, mustard, chana, jeera, dhaniya, or saunf).
- What worries them more is providing water and fodder to their cattle and buffaloes.
- The distress migration by farmers along with animals has already begun in central Maharashtra.
- This could present a serious challenge when the next monsoon is just few months away.
- Marathwada is already in a water crisis. Availability of drinking water has become a challenge as dug wells have dried up and bore wells are fast running dry.
What is to be done?
- Rabi season drought may be somewhat a rare phenomenon.
- But its impact on crop production and supply of water and fodder is no less, extending to the following summer.
- The state has started securing the existing water sources for rational use, to curtail water crisis.
- For the governments at the Centre and in the concerned states, the most sensible option is to act fast.
- The Central teams should immediately be sent to ascertain the ground situation and officially declare drought.
- Preparation for starting fodder camps, taking up MGNREGA works or making direct benefit transfers to the most vulnerable families should start soon.
Source: Indian Express, Down to Earth
