Kamrup, Assam: The drought situation across the country is worsening. In places like Assam, it is almost too late for crops, too late for farmers to cut their losses.
But they don't have a choice, so they carry on working in their fields, hoping against hope.
It is middle of August and Joykanta, a farmer, is yet to transplant the rice saplings.
For days, in fact for months, the farmers have been waiting for some rain, which will allow them to transplant these saplings. In fact the saplings have passed their prime, which means they are not suitable for rice cultivation but they are taking an outside chance.
Monsoon arrived in Assam by the end of May but the rainfall has been inadequate. Half of the cultivable land is still lying fallow mainly for lack of irrigation facilities.
On an average, every family has about 10 bighas of land holding so with half of it not in use, they say that the cost of preparing the land and the deficit in production would result to a loss of around Rs 50,000 for each family, which is a lot of money.
"There's no rain yet we are hoping against hope. Now we will face financial problems and food security. Some of us had to borrow money, how will we return that?" said Joykanta.
Day pass without rains, and the farmers return with saplings, hoping for some rain.