With a deficit of 23 per cent rainfall so far, India is grappling with water woes as 91 of its reservoirs are witnessing a 17 per cent deficit. The overall kharif sowing too has taken a severe hit with 85 lakh hectare area less covered when compared to last year. Monsoon rains are crucial for farmers who plant cane, corn, cotton, rice and soybean in June and July, with harvests from October.
According to the Central Water Commission (CWC) data, the live storage available in the 91 major reservoirs of the country stands at 26.944 Billion Cubic Metres (BCM) which is 17 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. "The overall storage position is not only less than the corresponding period of last year, but also less than the average storage of last ten years during the same period," it said.
According to officials, the situation of water storage remains dismal due to deficient monsoon last year and delayed monsoon this year which not only impacted the water storage in 91 reservoirs across the country but also depleting the quantum of water availability in major rivers including Ganga.
In the report, the CWC monitored 12 river basins for water storage; using data on average of the last 10 years, 2017-18 and 2018-19, the river basins of Tapti, Sabarmati, and Rivers of Kutch are the worst affected, with more that 50 per cent shortage in average water storage capacity compared to last 10 years. The water storage in Sabarmati and Rivers of Kutch is less than 20 per cent of their total capacities.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country has so far received 167.7 mm rains against the normal of 216.7 mm so far. Of the 36, 24 subdivisions have been deficient rainfall while 12 have received normal rainfall till date.
The latest data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, shows farmers have planted summer-sown crops-rice, pulses, soyabean, sugarcane, oilseed and cotton on 234.33 lakh hectare hectares, as of July 5 as compared to 319.68 lakh hectare last year. Rice sowing was down from 79. 36 lakh hectare in 2018 to 52.47 lakh hectare in 2019, a decline of 26.89 lakh hectare. Pulses sowing also down from 27.91 lakh hectare to 7.94 lakh hectare, a decline of 19.57 lakh hectare so far. Oilseeds plantation also down from 59.37 lakh hectare to 34.02 lakh hectare this year due to delayed and slow progress of monsoon this year. India is the world's biggest exporter of rice and the top importer of vegetable oils. Policy makers are keeping their fingers crossed.
Nearly half of India's farmland lacks irrigation and the monsoon season delivers about 70 per cent of the country's annual rainfall — key to the success of the farm sector in Asia's third-biggest economy. Water is typically scarce in the summer months, but the situation has been particularly grim this year in western and southern states that received below-average rainfall in the 2018 monsoon season.