In India's Farming Heartland, Barely A Raindrop Falls

Farmers have left their livestock in government-run animal shelters like this one, in Diksar Village, so they don't starve as grazing lands dry up.

THAKURKI, India—Late last year, Ramdas Dadaso Shinde planted 2,000 pomegranate saplings, nurtured them with water from a tanker and waited for the monsoon to arrive in June, as it does almost every year in the western state of Maharashtra.

Until then, he spent 150,000 rupees ($2,700) of his savings to keep them watered. To raise more money, he started selling off his 15 cattle, one by one.

But instead of dense rains feeding a plentiful harvest, he is now facing the prospect of a drought—and financial ruin. Barely a drop of rain had fallen by mid-July in his village, and he has lost not only his savings and his cattle but also the trees he planted.

"It's good that I let the cattle go, as I would have nothing to feed them," he said one recent day, staring at the empty cow shed.

The plight of Mr. Shinde, 35 years old, is being played out across Maharashtra, a state of 112 million people that includes the financial and Bollywood capital of Mumbai, as well as farmlands that stretch from the Arabian Sea to the jungles of central India.

With monsoon rains late and lackluster, swaths of the nation's most fertile farmlands are parched, including areas in the south and west that grow sugarcane, corn and rice—and parts to the north that grow grain.

More than 60% of farmland is dependent on monsoon rainfall. Already, severe damage is being done. So far, no state has declared a drought.Out of 36 meteorological subdivisions across India, 21 have received below-normal rains; rainfall for the country as a whole is 22% below average. Rain has been most plentiful on the coasts and in the hills, away from the farming heartland.

The prime minister's office says it has a contingency plan that includes providing seeds and more electricity to farmers, and improving water supplies, as India steps up efforts to tackle the consequences of the shortfall. "The intensity and spread of rainfall over the next week or so need to be watched carefully, especially in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office said in a statement Monday.

June and early July are planting seasons for many crops and farmers have skipped sowing rather than watch their crops wither, and are now waiting to plant winter season crops at the end of the summer. Others are sowing different crops that take less time to grow. Still others have resorted to planting crops designed simply to feed their families and livestock to tide them over the difficult times.

"I am not looking to grow cotton this year as it's already too late," said Sheikh Azhar Sheikh, a 32-year-old farmer in Dahegaon village near Aurangabad, about 186 miles east of Thakurki, as he tilled the rich black soil with a pair of bullocks. "All I am hoping for is that the rains would still arrive and I am able to grow some jowar," a coarse cereal. "At least I will have something to feed my family and the cattle until the next sowing in winter."

In the adjacent field, 22-year-old Suresh Rajput points to his newly sown cotton crop that has barely sprung from the ground. Already, up to 15% of the leaves are brown at the edges from lack of rain.

"If it doesn't rain for another week, then I might as well dig out the entire lot," he said. "The skies have darkened time and again since June, but hardly anything has fallen. Whatever amount has come has not even wet my shirt properly."

More than 50% of India's labor force works the land. A drop in farm incomes could further destabilize the economy, which grew at 5.3% in the first three months of 2012, its slowest rate in almost a decade, in large part due to a slowdown in export growth and a fall in investment.

A decline in agricultural profits would likely lead to a fall in rural spending, which economists cite as a driver of India's recent economic growth. It also could push inflation into double digits as already-high food prices climb further.

As of July 13, the total area sown with summer crops—including staples such as rice, pulses, oilseed and cereals—had fallen by 20.3 million acres from the same period a year ago, to 86.7 million acres. Rice sowing alone has fallen 25% to 24 million acres, according to government data.

Sugarcane is one of the few crops that has seen an increase in planting area. But across Maharashtra, large fields of sugarcane ratoons—the new cane that grows from the stubble left behind from the previous year—are drying up instead of being nurtured to maturity. They are sold as animal fodder at government-run animal shelters set up in western parts of the state.

Those shelters are doing brisk business as farmers take their cattle there so they don't go hungry: Grazing lands have dried up.

"We started this animal shelter three days ago and on the first day, 652 cattle arrived," said Sanjay Godse, chairman of Diksal Vikas Society in Satara in western Maharashtra. "We already have 850 cattle and the numbers are rising fast."

In Shirur district, near the city of Pune, authorities have rationed water, saying it may only be used by households, and snapped private supply pipelines connected to fields.

Along the roadsides, water containers of all shapes and sizes—pots, pans and drums—are placed every few meters waiting for government-run tankers to arrive and fill their vessels. "Even drinking water is a problem. Water comes once in four days for one hour," said Natha Namdeo Nale, a 64-year-old farmer, who owns a five-acre farm in the district. His three sons have turned from farming to working as daily manual laborers to support the family.

Santosh Wakhare, 45, a university graduate in commerce, who turned to farming when he couldn't find another job, said, "There is nothing left in my fields. Whatever little was there, I am feeding my cattle as there is no fodder."

His son is studying at an engineering college in Pune, and Mr. Wakhare is finding it tough to pay his college fees. "One thing is for sure. I will maintain him in college, even if I have to sell parcels of my land," he said. "What is there left in farming?

Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

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Posted in: 27th July 2012