By P. Vijian, NNN-Bernama,
New Delhi : Pre- monsoon jitters are over for Indian farmers. The eagerly-awaited South West monsoon is drenching India now, arriving much earlier than expected and breaking its 108-year punctuality record.
For Indians, monsoons are special. From June through September, the South West maritime winds bring the most rain to many water-parched regions of the sub-continent India.
It is a critical season as national planners forecast food production levels while summer-burnt farmers decide crop planting patterns and prepare for harvesting.
“It’s a great blessing for our farmers, this monsoon is a lifeline to them. The monsoon plays a major role for farmers and the country’s agricultural economics,” Chengal Reddy, secretary-general of the Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Association, told Bernama.
Regardless of the rise of the industry- and service-driven economy, India largely remains an agrarian society, with 65 per cent of India’s 1.2 billion population still living in rural areas and easily 600 million people rely on farmland for survival.
However, India’s erratic weather system, from sub-freezing Kashmiri winters to the tropical climate of Kerala, can be a spoiler to farmers, especially if rain clouds vanish in regions devoid of proper irrigation systems.
“About 60 per cent of land in India is not irrigated. In severe drought-prone areas, like in Bundelkhand and Vidharbha, it only rains twice in every five years and farmer suicides are high there. The monsoon brings a smile to these poor farmers,” said Reddy.
In Bundelkhand, in central Madhya Pradesh state, rain has shied away for the past four years and nearly 2,000 helpless men and women from farming communities have killed themselves, while in Vidharbha in western Maharashtra state, one farmer commits suicide every eight hours, unable to cope with the misery of failed crops and swelling debts.
Indian agriculturists hope this year’s monsoon will boost food production at a time when food prices are soaring in world and local markets, as inflation crept to 11 per cent, according to the latest report issued last Friday, raising the spectre of a political ruckus.
Even before the scorching Indian summer was about to peak in June, the monsoon lashed major agriculture areas — from Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states in the south to northern Punjab and Gujarat states and up to the Rajasthan deserts.
“If this is a good monsoon with normal rainfall, then we can expect good production and prices will return to normal,” said Dr Sri Ragava Reddy, vice-chancellor of Andra Pradesh Agriculture University.
India is the world’s largest food producer, with an annual output of 600 million tonnes and it is the worldl’s second largest producer of rice, wheat, cotton and sugar.
Agriculture accounts for only 18 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), far behind the service and industry sectors, but more than half of the population depend on farmland for their survival.
The wet weather can tame inflation, lessen farmers’ financial woes and offer cheaper food for the masses but rain is not the only antidote for farmers’ pain, warn experts.
“Monsoons are not the only solution. Crop-planting patterns, long-term planning and good agriculture strategies must be developed,” added Ragava.
On the horizons, the monsoon clouds are raising hopes for farmers to sow rice, wheat, soybean and groundnut, as early monsoons bring enough rainfall to wet most parts of the parched land.
Certainly, the monsoon seems to bring back the long-lost cheers among Indian farmers.