Rain deficit: Crop area short of target

The scenario in the cotton fields is also not very encouraging where the target area has reduced to 5.25 hectare against the actual target of 6 lakh hectares. The government had fixed a target of producing 20 lakh bales of cotton,but if the present dry spell continues,it may fall short by five lakh bales. Also,the farmers,say its impossible to produce 6 lakh tonnes of bajra as evisaged by the state government.

A concerned Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has prepared a contingency plan in consultation with the experts from the Haryana Agriculture University,Hisar,but it is unlikely to yield the desired results.

It aims to encourage the farmers to go for area specific crop pattern and shift to other crops.

“We are trying to divert the farmers to the guar crop that requires much less water and can be produced with other sources of irrigation such as the tubewells and canal water. We are expecting the areas of Yamunanagar,Karnal,Ambala,Panipat and Kaithal to only partially lag in their paddy target as these areas have enough sources of water,” said Additional Director,agriculture department, Rajinder Solanki Solanki.

However,the farmers say that its too late to shift to other crops. To this,Solanki said,“A contingency plan is in place and situation can be salvaged if the farmers go by the suggestions of the department.”

The suggestions include keeping the soil under paddy wet rather than flooded. Also,farmers should go for light irrigation of 4 to 5 cms after two to three days of disappearance of pond water.