Western Maharashtra districts, not Marathwada, bear brunt of dry spell

This was done circle-wise. The report, which covers the duration between July 25 and August 31, covered 2,571 circles. Of these, 484 circles have seen a break in rainfall from 15 to 21 days. Also, 404 circles reported a break in rainfall of over 21 days.

August, for the country at large and Maharashtra in particular, has been exceptionally dry. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has, in fact, dubbed it the driest August in 100 years. For Maharashtra, the condition has not been any different — of the 842.5 mm of rainfall the state is expected to receive between June 1 and September 3, it received only 681.6 mm of rainfall.

The divisions of Nashik (Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Palghar, Jalgaon and Nandurbar) and Pune (Pune, Sangli, Satara, Solapur and Kolhapur) have reported the least amount of rains — 55.6 per cent and 57.4 per cent of their normal rainfall, respectively. This, the agriculture department said, was unusual as Marathwada is generally drought-prone while Pune and Nashik generally report good rainfall.

The survey showed that in Pune division’s 164 circles, rainfall was absent for more than 21 days. Ahmednagar and Solapur districts have reported the maximum such dry circles — 56 and 67 respectively. Latur division (Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Parbhani and Hingoli) has seen the highest number of circles where rainfall is absent from 15-21 days — 125. Other circles in the state have reported far fewer dry circles.

What this report translates into is that crops in the districts of Ahmednagar, Solapur and Pune have far more moisture stress. For Solapur district, the long gap in rains has resulted in severe stress in the standing sugarcane crop. Already, farmers have started diverting their crop for fodder as green fodder is in short supply. Farmers in Solapur have started demanding release of water from the Ujjani dam, where the water level is anything but comfortable. The dam, which is at the tailend of the Bhima basin, has as of September 2 just 16.53 per cent of its total capacity as compared to the 99.34 per cent of last year.

At present the agriculture department has asked insurance companies to start the process of ground-level survey to assess the total compensation that farmers have to pay under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) . This season 78.75 lakh farmers have insured 1.13 lakh hectares of farm land. Post the survey the total amount of compensation for the mid-season adversity would be decided. However, given the fact that these three districts have predominantly cane growers, they might not be eligible for compensation as the crop is not covered under the insurance scheme.