Eight mm rain is the shortfall the district has seen in June - the first of the four-month Southwest monsoon season.
According to the Agro Climate Research Centre at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, as against the long-term average of 42 mm, the district has received 34 mm.
This rain has come over five rainy days, says S. Panneerselvam, Head of the Centre. The district is otherwise supposed to have received 42 mm spread over 18 rain days. A rain day is one with over 2.5 mm rainfall.
In the past five years, in two Junes the district has recorded less than the average rainfall and it has been alternating – in 2015 it was 47 mm, in 2014 it was 10.6 mm, in 2013 it was 54.5 mm, in 2012 it was 11 mm and in 2011 it was 93 mm. This is not surprising given the fact that the ACRC has predicted a deficit rainfall – a shortfall of 20 per cent or 160 mm for the entire season, Mr. Panneerselvam says.
In July, the Centre has predicted 68 mm rain. If the rain is around the average mark, the farmers should have by now started cultivating maize, cholam, cotton, vegetables or turmeric or grapes.
Sources in the Agriculture Department say that given the deficit rainfall, the area under cultivation has come down. And drastically at that. The area under cultivation that should be around 4,000 to 5,000 ha is now only around 600 ha.
Mr. Panneerselvam says that less-than-average rainfall is not the only worrying factor. The abnormal wind too. The wind speed that should be around 12 – 13 kmph is now at 24 kmph and on Saturday evening it has touched 27 kmph.
This is not good for standing crops. The unusual wind speed will hamper flowering in plants and destroy banana and damage coconut. Farmers need to take adequate precaution, he adds.
