New Delhi: On a day when the Indian Meteorological Department revised its Monsoon outlook to deficient, the government assured that it is ready with its contingency plans in 580 districts to deal with the situation. Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh claimed that the government has sufficient buffer stock of wheat and rice to deal with any shortages.
"We started preparing contingency plans for 580 districts from April onwards. We are ready to face the situation and we will overcome with the help of states," Singh said when asked about the his ministry's preparedness in view of forecast of deficient monsoon.
The Minister said that the Department is collecting information from states on their preparedness and the same will be shared with media on Wednesday.
The Met Department revised its forecast from 93 per cent to 88 per cent Long Period Average (LPA), with north-west region of the country expected to be hit the most.
Now, with the revised projection of 88 per cent, the monsoon is categorised as "deficient", raising fears of drought like situation in some parts of the country. The onset of South-West monsoon has delayed and is likely to hit Kerala coast on June 5. The IMD, in its preliminary forecast, had said that the Southwest Monsoon rains will hit the Kerala coast on May 30.
The timely onset of the South-West monsoon is crucial for sowing of kharif (summer) crops such as paddy and a deficit in rainfall may hit the rice output.
Agriculture, which employs about 60 per cent of the country's population, is heavily dependent on the monsoon as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is under irrigation.
In 2014, the country had received 12 per cent less rains, which hit production of grains, cotton and oilseeds. Due to poor monsoon, agriculture growth stood at 0.2 per cent in the 2014-15 fiscal.
According to the government's estimate, total foodgrains production has declined to 251.12 million tonnes in the 2014-15 crop year (July-June) from a record production of 265.04 million tonnes in the 2013-2014.
The Centre has also asked all states to make preparations to tackle drinking water problem in rural areas. "In light of the forecast, states have to take steps for preparedness and response in order to tackle the present drought like condition," Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation said in a letter to all states including Kerala, the gateway of Monsoon in the country.
Urging the states to take urgent measures to tackle the situation, the letter, referring to the first MeT warning about Monsoon rainfall in the country, said, "This is to include complete repair works of all bore wells and to prepare contingency plans for the entire deficient districts".
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