A continued dry spell in the current monsoon season has driven Gujarat to the brink of drought. The latest weather department data revealed that till September 9, Gujarat had a deficit of 21 per cent from the normal seasonal rainfall.

Even as the kharif sowing is complete on 97 per cent of the area, the water storage conditions are not encouraging with all the State reservoirs, including irrigation project of Sardar Sarovar (Narmada Dam), having only 71 per cent water storage as of now.

Scanty rainfall Scanty rainfall coupled with limited irrigation is becoming a dampener for the kharif farm output this year. Barring a couple of districts in North Gujarat and one in Saurashtra, the rest of the State has rainfall deficit ranging between 8 per cent and 60 per cent.

“In April, we had issued long-range prediction of deficient rainfall. Overall it has been deficient in the state, but in the months of July and August the deficit further aggravated. During this time the crop is in vegetation stage and requires water. There were episodes of intense rainfall for a couple of days at some places. But for agriculture, not only the quantum of rain but distribution of rain is required,” said Jayanta Sarkar, Director, IMD-Ahmedabad.

Uneven rains The districts of Kutch, Banaskantha, Mehsana, Patan in North Gujarat and Amreli in Saurashtra had witnessed intense rainfall in a short span. This resulted in heavy soil erosion and claimed several lives across the State.

Due to heavy downpour in some parts of the state, the overall reservoir condition in the State became stable. As on September 9, 2015, water storage stood at 16,262 million cubic meters (MCM) in 203 irrigation schemes including Sardar Sarovar, down 154 MCM from corresponding level seen on the same day last year. All these reservoirs are 77 per cent filled.

“Currently, the water storage condition is satisfactory because of good rainfall in early days of monsoon. But now the crop has reached to critical stage and the rain-fed growing regions have already come under crisis,” said HM Babaria, Deputy Director, Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat.

Farmers vulnerable Out of the total cultivable land of 9.7 million hectares, about a third is irrigated area, while a large part of the land is rainfed, thereby leaving farmers vulnerable to monsoon uncertainties.

“We have decided to write to the Chief Minister raising our concerns. There is no water for crops and if it doesn't rain in next 10 days, our plants will die. The damage has already begun with groundnut plants. Narmada canal work is only half done, hence there is a severe lack of irrigation in most parts of Saurashtra,” said Vitthalbhai Dudhatra, co-convener for Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) in Gujarat.

Forecasts As per the medium range forecast, there is a possibility of light to medium rainfall occurring in isolated places in the State but that is not likely to make any significant rise in the storage levels.

“In the next five-seven days, chances are feeble for a system to develop in the Arabian Sea,” Sarkar said.

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