Ready for El Nino! Govt puts in place monsoon-contingency plan for 580 districts

NEW DELHI: The government today said it has put in place a contingency plan for 580 districts to tackle any situation arising out of below-normal monsoon.

As per the weather department forecast, monsoon would be below normal this year due to an impact of El Nino.

Monsoon rains are expected to arrive on time this year, hitting Kerala on June 1.

Last year, the country had received 12 per cent less rains, affecting production of grains, cotton and oilseeds.

"We are ready with the contingency plan for 580 districts," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan told reporters here.

The Centre is also planning to come out with new crop insurance policy for farmers, he said.

The Minister expressed confidence that the Centre, with co-operation from all states, would be able to overcome the situation if the country receives below-normal rains.

Earlier this week, Agriculture Secretary Siraj Husain had said that the state governments have been asked to fully gear up to implement the contingency plan in 580 districts.

"In some districts, we are updating contingency measures as per the local needs," Husain had said.

State governments have been asked to use television channels for dissemination of agro-advisories.

States have been asked to come up with strategies based on the monsoon forecast. They have also been directed to keep ready adequate quantity of seeds besides other inputs such as fertilisers, micro nutrients and pesticides.

After a poor monsoon in 2014, untimely rains during March-April this year have already put farmers in distress and there have been quite a few cases of farmer suicides.

As per the second advance estimates released on February 18 this year, the country's foodgrain production is estimated to decline by three per cent to 257.07 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) over last year.

The production may fall further as various states received unseasonal rains and hailstorms during March-April this year, affecting rabi crops, including wheat.

Agriculture, which contributes only 15 per cent to India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but employs about 60 per cent of population, is heavily dependent on monsoon as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is under irrigation.