There’s a popular saying in these
parts which goes – “A Delayed Monsoon Is
A Denied Monsoon”
Things last year were so bad that
I had said that we were even prepared to accept a delayed monsoon. If the water
bearing clouds of the South West Monsoon fail then India has no choice but to
resort to importing food crops, vegetables and pulses. It’s a complicated
weather system and the monsoons are pretty much the lifeblood of India.
It’s still June .Figures from the Met department have shown that the going so far has been good .The monsoon’s
progress has been slow but it isn’t a big worry.Normally around the third week of June, the
monsoon reaches Central India. This year the rains have come to South India and
just 2 days back entered Central India.
A
few days ago we told you about India’s
battle with the rain gods. As the battle continues India’s farmers are
increasingly facing the certainty that in the next few weeks they will have to
hear the dreaded words that the water bearing monsoons have indeed failed. This
bit of information as far as the officials in the Indian government including
the Agriculture Minister is still “too premature”. We have to assume that the
monsoons despite having revived a bit in the last three days are going to be
sub par. The worst case scenario will be that the country is heading towards a
drought.
As I write this the rain clouds
have burst over Mumbai city .There is hope that this shower of rainfall is the
real deal. Not a sporadic passing shower but the onset of the Monsoon in most
of India. The monsoon officially hit the country more than a fortnight ago yet
it has not impacted the majority of Indian states. Undoubtedly that’s a cause
for concern, a delayed monsoon is still better than a failed monsoon and right
now economists and farmers best hope that the monsoon does not fail. If it does
it will be nothing short of a disaster.
The economy is heavily dependent
on the monsoon. Most food crops depend on the water that it delivers.
Irrigation facilities still being nascent, the economy pretty much runs because
of the monsoon. This however being a variable cannot be controlled. If it rains
and rains well then everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
As I write this the rain clouds
have burst over Mumbai city .There is hope that this shower of rainfall is the
real deal. Not a sporadic passing shower but the onset of the Monsoon in most
of India. The monsoon officially hit the country more than a fortnight ago yet
it has not impacted the majority of Indian states. Undoubtedly that’s a cause
for concern, a delayed monsoon is still better than a failed monsoon and right
now economists and farmers best hope that the monsoon does not fail. If it does
it will be nothing short of a disaster.
