Monsoon 2020: Monsoon rains start to fade in August, but Kharif acreage provides glimmer of hope

Monsoon rains start to fade in August, but Kharif acreage provides glimmer of hope

After a strong beginning in June and encouraging performance in July, monsoon rains began to peter out in August, with the cumulative rainfall following the long period average.

While LPA in this season was more eminent than the past five-year average till the end of July, “on a cumulative basis (from June 1 to August 5), the Southwest monsoon has been 1.1% under the long period average (LPA),” a CARE Rating report stated on Monday. The rainfall scarcity has maintained for the third following week. However, it decreased during the week that ended August 5, 2020.

Kharif acreage is still high than in past years.

Despite the fall in monsoon rains, Kharif acreage is still more expensive than last year’s levels at 10% more than the last year’s similar period. The same can be connected to the early start of monsoon and widespread rainfall across regions, leading to the near conclusion of sowing activities. Monsoon rains are effective to the Kharif acreage since India still depends heavily on rainfall for agricultural activities.

The distribution of rainfall in India this year

From June 1 to August 5, the spatial distribution of rainfall has moderated marginally, with India receiving 492.9 mm rainfalls that are 1% lower than normal LPA (498.3 mm). August has been witnessing turbulent for monsoon rains with the precipitation level lower by 12.7% than the LPA in the ending week of August. 

At the same time, most of the country has endured vital balance to regular rainfalls whereas, approximately 21% of the regions experienced inadequate rainfalls in the continuing monsoon season so far. “Out of 36 sub-divisions, 19 received normal rainfalls, and ten sub-divisions registered excess rainfalls while presumption was large excess in one sub-division. Only six sub-divisions have witnessed insufficient rainfall as on July 22, 2020,” the report said.

The rainfall data of different states in the year 2020

The states that have received average rainfall this year include Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka. Coincidentally, these regions have higher agriculture control. States that have experienced deficient rainfall this year are Nagaland, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Dadar, Manipur, and Nagar Haveli, Daman, and Diu.

The farmers are still fighting to recover from the damage caused by the pandemic.

After the lockdown imposed in the overall nation to prevent the widespread of the pandemic COVID-19, many crops were spoiled, and many were not sold in markets. This lead to cause considerable losses to the farmers. The agriculture sector was locked entirely due to the novel virus effect. 

After the Unlock phase, the agriculture sector started recovering rapidly and was supported by the Modi-led government. Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued Agriculture Infrastructure Funds to empower farmers in order to support the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat campaign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted and declared the details via video call. Prominent ministers and Agriculture minister were present there.

Now we can hope that farmers can get in a better condition to fight against the damage caused by the pandemic COVID-19.