Yavatmal under grip of dry spell amid shortage of rainfall

YAVATMAL: As the monsoon continues to play truant, Maharashtra's Yavatmal district is under the grip of a strong dry spell.

Yavatmal has received only 139.3 mm rainfall during the current monsoon season, which amounts to 37.3 per cent only, as against the normal average of 911.34 mm, according to district's Agriculture Superintending Officer Anil Ingle.

The district has 9,09,550 hectares of land useful for Kharif crops of which 8,51,976 hectares has been sown so far. The main crops sown are cotton (on 4,61,793 hec), soyabean (2,46,419 h), Jowar (30,118 h), tur (91,526 h), Moong (5,105 h), Udid (5149 h) and others (11,866 h).

Since there is shortage of rainfall, the farmers are forced to go for a second sowing. It is expected that crops on 2,17,000 hectares would be badly affected for which 1,28,660 quintals of seeds are required, Ingle said.

However, only 93,120 quintals of seeds are available and the expected shortage is 35,540 quintals, he said.

In June, the district received 120.7 mm rains as against the average of 175.8 mm while in July, it got 18.6 mm so far as against an average of 308.1 mm. Rains occurred on 11 days in June and only on three days in July, he said.

Meanwhile, 86,624 quintals of fertilizers have been received of which 68,040 quintals are sold.

According to MSDCL sources, they received 9,913 demands from farmers for energy connections of irrigation pumps till March 2015 and have set the target to be completed till March 2016.

According to Zilla Parishad CEO Dr Mallinath Kalshetty, various schemes for farmers are being implemented of which 'Jalyukta Shivar' campaign is being carried out in 413 villages across the district on top priority, for which Rs 396.49 crores have been proposed in the budget.

Under the scheme, 16,258 various works related to the abhiyan have been taken up, of which 2,503 have been completed so far while 187 are in progress, he added.