The impact of heavy water shortage in Gujarat is on sowing this year. Under the scarcity of water all the Kharif crops in the state have recorded 75% reduction till June 19. Against the total Kharif sowing in 871,700hectares of land last year till 19th June, sowing has been done on 225,231 hectares in the same period this year which is only 25 percent of last year's records.
With the hope of arrival of monsoon in time, the experts and government officials have advised the farmers to stop the sowing of certain crops such as cotton in a time when Gujarat is facing severe shortage of water.
Junagadh Agricultural University Vice-Chancellor AR Pathak said, in general, the monsoon in Gujarat reaches June 10-15.However, there is no indication of the arrival of monsoon. In addition to delays in monsoon, deficiency of pre-monsoon water has led to a decline in Kharif sowing.
However, the crop cannot be affected by this crisis any longer. Because the monsoon can come at any time. And this concern will soon gone away. Coarse cereals in different parts of the state have been sown only by 2.95 percent compared to last year till June 19. However, the figure of sowing of pulses is 36 percent of last year's area. By June19 last year the sowing of grains reached 55,300 hectares as against this figure of 1632 hectares while the area under pulses has been 3840 hectares compared to last year's 10,600 hectares.
Apart from this oilseeds sowing till last year till June 19, sowing is only 14.98percent while other crops including cotton, tobacco, Guar and vegetables are 33.01 percent of last year's area. Compared to the middle of June, most sowing crops include turmeric, cotton and groundnut.
According to the State Agriculture Department data, paddy sowing has been around 40 percent of last year's area., whereas for peanuts this figure was 15.16 percent and cotton for 28.15 percent.
As compared to last year's sowing of oil seeds 256,700 hectares till last year, sowing of oilseeds in 38,473 hectares this year. On the other hand, the number of other crops including cotton and tobacco is 181,286 hectares till June 19, compared to 549, 100 hectare last year.For the last three years in Gujarat, the average Kharif sowing has been 85.7lakh hectare compared to which the state has recorded only 2.63 percent till date.
