With the monsoon pausing, the Met department has asked farmers to hold on and not sow seeds until the rains reach Maharashtra.
Where is the monsoon? A question that cotton farmer Govardhan Ghadage thought was already answered with the Met Department's positive forecast. But with pre monsoon showers too vanishing in drought hit Marathwada's Beed district, Mr Ghadage is fearing the worst. As seeds worth Rs 15,000 that have already been sown are now at risk.
"I bought 20 bags of cotton seeds and sowed them but soon after that it stopped raining. If it doesn't start raining again within eight days, my crops will die once again," said farmer Govardhan Ghadge.
Encouraged by pre monsoon showers that lasted for two whole days, already debt ridden farmers spent thousands of rupees to sow seeds on their land that has been barren for four years now and are now left regretting their move.
With the monsoon pausing, the Met department has asked farmers to hold on and not sow seeds until the rains reach Maharashtra.
"You need at least 75 mm rain to start sowing crops but Georai received barely 55 mm. We have taken initiatives like calling for meetings to inform farmers not to sow during this time period," said Swami SS, the Agriculture Officer at Georai taluka in Beed district.
But farmers allege, the information came in too late. "We received no intimation from the government or from the gram Panchayat. We were initially told that monsoon will arrive early but the fact that it's delayed, we read in papers but by then it was too late," said farmer Laxman Yadav.
For Marathwada, it's a desperate situation. The hope as now forecasted, is that the monsoon will arrive in the next five days.