Maharashtra farmers brace for heavy losses as uneven rainfall destroys crop

First, there was a heatwave, then India saw unseasonal rainfall, and after that a delayed onset of the monsoons. Each of these phenomenon damaged crops and hurt India's farmers. Now, these farmers are grappling with a new problem -- the monsoons have dried up earlier than usual.

As part of CNBC-TV18's ongoing series 'What's Ailing Rural India', Santia Gora travelled to Maharashtra's Nashik district and reported that farmers there are bracing for heavy losses this year.

34-year-old Janardhan Sonawane farms 10 acres of land in Shahpur village of Maharashtra's Nashik district. His usual crops in the July-August season are soybean and coriander and he had big plans from the harvest, including the purchase of a new tractor that has been on his wishlist for over 3 years. But the monsoons, which usually hold firm till mid-September, have dried up abruptly in August this year -- and his standing crop has wilted.

"I have 10 acre of land. I had spent over Rs 1.5 lakh for sowing soybean and that is of no use as the crop is damaged as there is no rains in the region," Sonawane said.

It's not just farmers in Nashik district who have been hit by deficient rainfall in August. At least 9 other districts in Maharashtra including Beed, Jalna, Akola, and Amravati have reported farmer distress due to insufficient rainfall.

The Met Department said the problem is not restricted to Maharashtra. At an all-India level, the national rainfall deficit between the first of June and the 16th of August is at 6 percent.

For the South peninsula region, rainfall over this period has come in at 12 percent below average, Central India has seen a deficit of 3 percent, and East and North East India has seen a deficit of 19 percent.

The situation has worsened in August. Between the 10th and the 16th of August, the national rainfall deficit is at 58 percent -- 58 percent for South Peninsula, 85 percent for Central India, 43 percent for North West India, and 27 percent for East and North-East India.

GP Sharma, President of Meteorology at Skymet said, This August will be the driest August in last 100 years. The situation won't improve. It's going to become bad to worse. It will be worse than the forecast."

This is the latest in a string of weather-related hits farmers have had to face this year and their distress is palpable. Farmers said any pickup in rainfall towards the end of August will not help, because their crop maturing window has already closed.

This points to some tough times for not just farmers, but consumers as well. A lot of this effect has already been seen in the July CPI print, which has jumped to a 15-month high of 7.44 percent due to surging food prices.

Both the central government and various state governments said they are monitoring the situation closely, and have promised timely and appropriate action but the farmers said they are still waiting for some of the steps promised earlier in the year to be implemented and so are not certain when any new steps will benefit them.