India’s southwest monsoon, largely responsible for irrigating most of the kharif crop that is under sowing now, continues to remain a cause of concern for the government. The situation has started to play out with the Jharkhand government declaring drought in four districts. Manipur government has already declared drought in the whole state.
The government is trying to divert more power supplies to the rural areas to help in farming operations and use power run water pumps wherever available in order to minimize the damage that the worst monsoon till now in last eighty years threatens to cause.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) however hopes that the situation will improve in next few days and is sticking to its forecast of rains close to 93% of the long term average (LTA). However, even according to the forecasts of the IMD, rains will be substantially deficient in the Northwest India including states like Punjab and Haryana, major producers of grain.
The government on its part is trying to ensure greater power supply to these states. However, the situation does not look very healthy on the power front either as nearly all the hydro-projects are running at leas than 60% capacity due to poor rains and therefore depleting water reserves.