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.
