Chandigarh, August 1
The smile is back on the face of the farmering community in this region as rain gods have started showing a bit of kindness to them (farmers). What has lit up the faces of farmers most is that the rainfall has covered almost the entire region that includes various parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and certain pockets of Rajasthan. The rain is expected to give some respite to the withering kharif crops and orchards in Himachal.
Reports reaching here have indicated that various parts of the region were lashed by light to moderate rain during the day. Rain has been continuing in certain parts at the time of filing this report and the sky is still overcast in certain parts.
In the region, Chandigarh has received the maximum 19 mm of rain since this morning followed by Simla which has received a little less rain than the City Beautiful. The local met officials said that while Ambala got 7 mm of rain this morning, Patiala got 14 mm and Amritsar 2 mm. Reports of rain have come from Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Karnal and Bathinda region also. In fact, certain areas of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh got heavy rain last evening.
Because of the prolonged dry spell, drought had hit various parts of the region. Farmers have been fighting a battle against the drought with their backs to the wall. However, today’s rain has given some hope back to the farmers to save their kharif crops, especially paddy and green fodder, which were affected by the drought.
When contacted, Dr Ajmer Singh, Director of Agriculture, Punjab, said that the rain would help to some extent in the recovery of paddy crops in certain areas. He said that the scarcity of green fodder would be over because of the rainfall. Farmers had abandoned or reploughed paddy fields at various places because of drought . Problem of drinking water had become acute as hand pumps had gone dry in many places.
Despite reports of light to heavy showers in the region, the fact remains that the drought has already affected the kharif crops and its cascading affect on the economy would still persist. Recently a Central team headed by Dr Joginder Singh, Additional Agriculture Commissioner of India, had visited Punjab and Haryana to asses the damage caused by drought in these states. The team has submitted the report to the Union Government.
