Next ten days may be very crucial for all crops in Jharkhand as it may prove fatal for them if the agricultural fields are not fed with a good spell of rainfall. According to weather experts, since the last 10 days have almost been dry, standing crops in the fields can get a new lease of life only if there is a good spell of rainfall in the next 7-8 days.
“Next 10 days are crucial especially for medium and upper land crops while the low land crops are still safe for the next few weeks as there is enough water there to keep them standing,” said Weather Scientist and Chairman of Department of Agricultural Physics at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) A Wadood. If there was no rainfall in the next 10 days, upland crops definitely would fail in the State, he added.
The Agri-Scientist asserted the monsoon has gone weaker in the State while there was a good spell of rainfall in West Bengal. Though the farmers were worried about the low coverage of crops in the beginning, the rainfall has become a bigger challenge for them now, he said.
Wadood further added that almost 88 per cent of paddy and maize fields have been covered in the state while pulses and oil-seeds have got coverage of 66 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.
“Out of a total of 17,67000 hectare of the cultivable land, only 15,62000 of the paddy fields have been covered this monsoon,” said Wadood.
Another Scientist at BAU also asserted that the condition of rainfall in the state was really pathetic, posing an adverse impact on all crops across the state.
“Farmers in the state are keeping their fingers crossed as upland crops are likely to fail due to lack of rainfall this time,” said Ramesh Kumar of BAU.
Met officials, on the other hand, also do not see any chances of rainfall in the next 2-3 days as no favourable system has been recorded so far which might bring in rain in the next 48 hours.
“No favourable system has developed so far in this regard but still, we are hopeful of scanty rainfall in some pockets of the state due to low pressure formation on the North part in the Bay of Bengal which may bring some rain if they get further intensified in the next two days,” said Director of the Meteorological Department in Jharkhand BK Mandal.
A movement of upper air cyclonic circulation has also been spotted on the West-Central and North-West Bay of Bengal which may also bring in some rain for the state, said Mandal. “If all goes well, there might be some rainfall in some parts of the state in the next two days,” he added.
Wadood, however, said that traditionally there is always a chance of developing a system in August-end in normal conditions, which generally brings in some spell of rain each year giving a new lease of life for the paddy crops.