If government is to be believed drought is not going to impact Indian farmers in any great way. A PIB release claims that all the Ministries are well prepared to handle drought and have nominated a nodal officer for the same.
Ministry of Agriculture has nominated Jt. Secretary level officer as nodal officer for each State and Department of Animal Husbandry has also nominated a nodal officer for 8 regions. Officers of the Seed Corporation also informed that sufficient quantity of seeds that can be effective in deficient rainfall are available. Fodder seeds are also available in sufficient quantity.
These information came up when Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister took a review meeting of the efforts being made since April to face the deficient monsoon, Sanjeev Balyan, Minister of State for Agriculture was also present.
The meeting was attended by the senior officers of Agriculture Ministry including Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Secretary, ICAR, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Officers of Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Fertilizers, Secretary, NDMA, Officers from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) was also attended the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the latest monsoon predictions in June given by the IMD. Accordingly to these predictions the North West area will receive 85% rainfall, which is little less than the average. According to these predictions it is expected that the rainfall will be deficient by 12%.
Comparing the experience of last year the officers concluded that the slightly deficient prediction for this region will not have an adverse impact as the area under irrigation in this area is very high. The status of reservoirs in this area is also very encouraging. While the storage capacity in the North West region last year was only 38%, this year it is 42%. It may be mentioned that the average storage capacity for this region for last 10 years has been 28% only. Therefore there is no reason for any worry.
Water harvesting as also drought related works already undertaken under MNREGA is around 116000. Ministry for Power has also prepared a contingency plan for supply of adequate electricity. Ministry of Fertilizer has already released 90 lakh tone fertilizers till May, 2015 to the States as against 60 lakh tones demanded by the States. This is part of the advance preparedness for the kharif crop, claimed a PIB release.
It is a matter of satisfaction for the farmers that the North West are in which there is a probability of deficient rainfall, has sufficient irrigation avenues available.