Impressive showers in the pre-monsoon months (April and May), coupled with arrival of a timely monsoon and a normal forecast by the IMD, have raised hopes of a good Kharif harvest this year.
The Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) at Kanke on the outskirts of Ranchi is expecting a bumper Kharif harvest.
“This year we are finding extremely favourable conditions for Kharif crops. Rain in the pre-monsoon months was more than average normal (average March-May rain in Jharkhand is around 115mm). This helped farmers in irrigation and preparing fields to sow Kharif crops. The timely arrival of monsoon on June 13 and subsequent rains covering most districts has proved to be a boon. Jharkhand has achieved surplus rain, which will help in sowing of Kharif crops, predominantly rice, which requires stagnation of water in lowlands. The Al Nino conditions are favourable and according to the IMD forecast we are expecting well-distributed rain in July and August,” said A. Wadood, a weather scientist and an agriculture expert at the university.
According to Wadood, they are expecting a bumper crop yield of over 50 lakh tonnes of paddy (rice).
Apart from rice, the total Kharif crop yield, including pulses, maize, oilseeds and coarse cereals, is expected to cross 60 lakh tonnes.
Under normal conditions Jharkhand produces 40 lakh tonnes of paddy during the Kharif season.
Last year, the production dipped to 34 lakh tonnes. Though the states experienced normal rain last year, distribution was uneven and there had been a delay with the monsoons arriving after a delay of 11 days.
Statistics revealed that in 2011,timely sowing and adequate monsoon rains in June and July resulted in record production of 52 lakh tonnes of paddy in the state.
Data from the state agriculture department revealed that so far sowing of Kharif crops have been completed on around 10,000 hectares of land.
Last year, the sowing and transplantation work was yet to begin this time in June.
The total area under paddy cultivation in the state is 18 lakh hectares, while coverage area of pulses is around 6 lakh hectares.
Maize comprises 3.12 lakh hectares while oilseeds and coarse cereals cover 60,000 and 40,000 hectares respectively.
Panchanan Mahato, a farmer in Patamda block of East Singhbhum, said, “We had started preparing land for Kharif crops taking advantage of a good shower in the pre-monsoon months. The timely arrival of monsoon and the prevailing light to moderate rain is helping us.”
He said because of the good spell of rain in April and May, the land retained sufficient moisture which made ploughing and sowing easy for farmers and that they were expecting a good output.
The IMD’ Ranchi centre has good news in store. “We are expecting fairly widespread rains over Jharkhand till June 23 as the monsoon trough is active. Heavy rain is also expected at a few isolated pockets Two weather systems, a cyclonic circulation and a low pressure trough, are also assisting in rainfall activity,” said S.D. Kotal, a director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre.
