That North-East Monsoon for 2015 is likely be above normal. That is happy news. But what is not so good is that it will rain for fewer days.
The Agro Climatic Research Centre at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has predicted that Coimbatore will receive 372 mm rain in the North-East Monsoon period – October to December.
This is more than the long term average of 327 mm for the district. But the Centre had predicted that it is likely to rain on only 18 days out of the 90 days of Monsoon. The long term average on rain days is 24 days.
The Centre said that more rainfall in fewer days means increase in run-off water and erosion of surface soil.
This did not augur well for agriculture.
The rain had to be spread over as many days as possible so that there was gradual percolation and plants retained the moisture.
Only then would the dependence on ground water for irrigation come down.
If the predicted rain were to be spread over 24 days, it would translate to rain every third or fourth day, the Centre pointed out.
Coimbatore had excess North-East Monsoon rain of 371.8 mm last year too and it was spread over 18 days. The year before, the district recorded 223 mm rain spread over 17 days.
The surplus rain for the district comes in the backdrop of a deficit South-West Monsoon. As against the long term average of 209 mm, the district had received only 146.5 mm for the period that starts in June and ends by September.
Sources in the Agriculture Department said that they had asked farmers to dig ponds to store water and collect the eroded top soil in order to tap as much of North-East Monsoon water as possible.
They had also asked farmers cultivating coconut trees to form bunds to prevent soil and water run off.
