Will Govt’s prediction about rains come true?
A presentation on the progress of monsoon by the India Meteorological
Department (IMD) has made the government confident this year will be a good
crop year, but everything depends on rains in the next seven days.
“(After) the briefing that IMD made this morning (on the monsoon situation, I
can say the) entire week will be a good week. If this prediction is correct,
then I can definitely say we are out of trouble,” Agriculture Minister Sharad
Pawar told reporters.
Sixty per cent of India’s 140 million hectare cultivable land is
rainfall dependent, while the rest is irrigated. “I am just keeping my fingers
crossed, because ultimately one has to see what exactly happens. (Compare to)
the situation that was there 10 days ago, today there is substantial
improvement.
“Paddy sowing has increased by 75 per cent over the previous week, but
still we haven't reached last year's level. We are sticking to Plan-A and we
have not yet switched to the contingency plan,” Pawar said.
“In Punjab and Haryana, there is less rainfall. But up to 90 per cent of irrigation is there and out of that, 50-55 per cent is irrigation through well. So, the problem is something different — it's the problem of power and diesel,” Pawar said.
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