West Bengal Likely To Face Famine-Like Situation As Rainfall Deficit Recorded Above 45%

The Agriculture Department said that the last time when such a severe rainfall deficit was witnessed in West Bengal was in 2010, though it never went over 40 per cent.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Manmath Nayak

Published: August 2, 2022, 10:15 PM IST

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West Bengal Drought Latest Update

West Bengal Famine Latest Update: The West Bengal Agriculture Department on Tuesday feared that a famine-like situation might rise in the state as rainfall deficit in West Bengal has been recorded above 45 per cent in two consecutive months of June and July. As per the state Agriculture and the Irrigation Departments, while the rainfall deficit had been recorded at 48 per cent in June, the figure came down slightly to 46 per cent in July.

The Agriculture Department said that the last time when such a severe rainfall deficit was witnessed in West Bengal was in 2010, though it never went over 40 per cent.

Speaking to IANS, agriculture expert and All India Kisan Sabha leader, Samar Ghosh, said generally the time for sowing of Aman paddy is from middle of July to middle of August.

He said unless there is enough rainfall during that period, the seed-beds do not become suitable for sowing of seeds and there is a possibility of a major delay in the beginning of the sowing period which will hamper the production to a great extent.

The statistics of the state Agriculture Department suggest that till the middle of July, sowing of paddy seeds had been possible in only 2.08 lakh hectares out of the target of 52 lakh hectares.

Again, out of 2.08 lakh hectares of land, sowing of Aus paddy has been possible for 1.1 lakh hectares, thus posing grave uncertainty for production of this particular variety of paddy during the current farming season. On the other hand, till date, Aman paddy can be sown in 97,000 hectares of land.

Giving details, Professor of Economics, PK Mukhopadhyay said that the factor will inevitably result in an increase of rice in the open market in the coming days as it happened in 2010. “At the same time, the worst affected will be the sharecroppers and as many of them will become jobless,” he said.

(With inputs from IANS)