Even as they look expectantly at skies to open up, farmers in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have begun counting their losses. Scanty rainfall across both the states, they realise, is set to deal them a blow of several crores of rupees. They have already lost 30 to 40 per cent of their crops so far.

The losses would compound if there is no rainfall in February either.

The damage isn’t restricted to the rabi crops only. The prevailing dry spell accompanied by heavy frost during nights has hit cash crops like peas, cabbage potato, garlic and onion.

Fruit growers, too, are worried as abnormal weather conditions have resulted in woolly aphid and powdery mildew attacks in their orchards

The farmers in Himachal produced around 6.80 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, 40,000 M.T of barley, 6000 MT of gram, 3.5 lakh MT vegetables, 30,000 MT potatoes and 3,500 MT oil seeds during the last rabi crop season. The total rainfall recorded then was 184.6 mm.

But the hill state has received only 127 mm rainfall since September last year. Nearly 40 per cent farmers could not sow their rabi crops in the absence of adequate soil moisture.

“A prolonged dry spell has already damaged about 30 to 40 per cent crops of farmers and fruit growers,” said Vice-Chancellor, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry Nauni Dr K R Dhiman.

The farmers lament inaction on the part of the government. “Besides introducing crop insurance schemes, the government should grant special financial help to farmers as abnormal weather conditions have almost become an annual feature during winter,” said Om Parkash Panwar, general secretary, Himachal Kisan Vikas Sangathan.

... contd.