A rainfall deficit of 37 per cent during this sowing season has led the state government to declare a drought in 33 out of the 38 districts in Bihar.
Despite a good monsoon, Bihar farmers have little to cheer about. A rainfall deficit of 37 per cent during this sowing season has led the state government to declare a drought in 33 out of the 38 districts. This intervention came today after a Bihar government cabinet meeting.
The announcement means affected farmers will be given diesel subsidies, tax rebates, and increased electricity supply to run pumps for irrigating any alternative crops over the seasonal paddy crop that has failed in most districts
Ranwir Singh, a farmer from Jehanabad district, says he and other farmers in the region have only managed to sow 15 to 20 per cent paddy this season
For the Bihar government, it's been a tough monsoon season. Against an expected rainfall of about 890 mm from June 1 this year till today, the rainfall has only been 668 mm
According to sources in the government, Nitish Kumar wanted to declare a drought much earlier, but was advised to wait since there was a possibility the monsoon could pick-up in the state
"We kept on waiting for rainfall but it did not happen. We found that deficit during the sowing season was as much as 37 per cent," says Mr Vyas, Principal Secretary of Bihar's Disaster Management department.
Apart from Bihar, adjoining Jharkhand and the entire northeast have also registered significant rain deficits, causing worry for the farmers, who are left to deal with the problems accompanying a bad monsoon.