Drop in food production due to lack of rains?

• Less rain in comparison to last five years

Bengaluru: In the backdrop of failure of two seasons of rains, a drastic fall in food yield is expected this agricultural year and there is a fear that the state may well be facing the lowest production in the last five year. But there was a major lack of rain during the two seasons of pre-monsoon showers and post-monsoon showers. Due to this 100 taluks have been announced as famine ridden. Because of this, the food production aim was not met and it been assumed that only 95.69 lakh tonnes of food may be produced.

Though the state government is trying to increase the self confidence of the farmers through farm loan wavier, due to the bad mood of the rain gods, there is possibility that the self confidence of the farmer sink further. Along with this there is a possibility that the state’s internal agricultural production may also fall. The quality of the crops coming will remain in status quo. The demand for them might rise or fall. There are two possibilities, is the opinion amongst the agriculture department officials.

“Normally, when one pre-monsoon shower fails, another recovers it. But this time, both the pre and post monsoon showers have failed. Therefore, in the recent years this has had an adverse effect on the farmers. Because of this the income of the farmer will fall. In this backdrop, an assistance of Rs 1,700 crore has been requested from the centre. Besides, the department is working on providing the highest possible insurance relief to the farmers,” said K G Jagadeesh, Commissioner, Agriculture Department.

“This agricultural year, there has been very low production. Because of this the people may face the problem with the availability of legumes, oilseeds and fodder for livestock,” informed Dr T N Prakash Kammaradi, president, State Agricultural Price Commission.

Article by Vijayakumar Chandaragi translated into English by Aaron Dmello