Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the government is making advance preparations for the Kharif season to help farmers deal with the possible impact of a weak monsoon caused by El Niño. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Mr Chouhan said that the country had so far seen around 43% less rainfall and that the monsoon was expected to remain weak in July too.

 

He noted that around 315 districts could be affected by below-normal rainfall, including 111 high-priority districts with very limited irrigation, where irrigation coverage is below 25%. Another 76 districts fall under the medium-priority category with irrigation coverage between 25 and 50%, while 128 districts have been classified as low priority owing to relatively better irrigation facilities through dams and other sources. A majority of these districts are located across 12 states: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

 

The Minister further said that contingency plans had already been prepared for the affected districts, with a focus on alternative crops, short-duration varieties, crop diversification, and better use of available water resources such as ponds, reservoirs, check dams, farm ponds, and other water conservation structures.