This Article is From Jul 24, 2012

With 68 per cent below normal rainfall, Punjab on the verge of drought

With 68 per cent below normal rainfall, Punjab on the verge of drought
With just 12 mm of rain in all of July, people in Punjab's Sangrur district are hoping for divine intervention. One of the main districts for producing rice, their crop is now dangerously delayed.

Monsoon in Punjab is a whopping 68 per cent below normal and Sangrur and adjoining is close to a 75 per cent deficit.

With just four hours of electricity per day farmers have been forced to use generators to pull out ground water, a growing expense for many of them.

"So far I have spent around Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 per acre on just pumping ground water. Because of the poor rain, we have to use more fertilizers as the crop is weak," explains Amrik Singh. It is estimated that these costs will increase as the water table recedes and pumping up water gets more difficult.

The local administration says if the situation does not improve in the next 10 days, they will ask the government to declare certain areas as drought hit. "Everyone cannot start pumping water using generators. It costs a lot of money and farmers can't afford that," says Rahul Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Sangrur.

For desperate farmers, their optimism is fading and praying at the local Gurdwara is the only option they seem to have.

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