National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Delayed Showers

The late beginning of monsoon is likely to affect the crop production throughout the country

By THAKUR AMGAI

Farmers from the Tharu community of western district of Banke hit by drought have started launching strange rituals to please Lord Indra - the god of rain for the last more than two weeks after the prolonged period of dry weather in the prime time of plantation. The women of the community, who are very conservative, have been plowing their fields, clad in male attires. The practice of plowing of the fields by women and women wearing men’s clothes are not common practices in this region. They are doing so with a faith that such activities will please the god of rain. People in other parts of the country are even organizing events like marriage of frog couple, which they believe will bring rainfall.

Such activities by the farmers show the degree of panic that is hitting the farmers because of the drought. The farmers, who are chiefly dependent on monsoon rain for cultivation, are worried about how they will meet their food requirements if the drought prolongs. “I am worried we might not even get works, if it does not rain,” said Barshanta Tharu expressing the woes of landless people who depend upon agricultural labor for their livelihood.

In the previous years, there used to be heavy rainfalls throughout the country by this time. But this year, even by the first week of July, monsoon has not been fully active. While the monsoon wind has entered Eastern and Central regions, the western region is yet to receive even the initial showers of the season.

Normally monsoon begins in Nepal from early June. Officials had announced early arrival of monsoon this year. The monsoon winds gave brief showers for a few days in the central and western part of the country before it was obstructed by the western winds during late June. The rainfall was at a normal trend till mid June. But the sudden dryness that developed subsequently left total rainfall in June to a mere 183 mm, the least in last 13 years.

The average rainfall for June is 252 mm. Before this year, the lowest rainfall was in 1991,when just 114 mm rainfall was recorded in the month, according to the Department of the Hydrology and Meteorology.

The reason for the delayed monsoon is the unexpected current of the western winds. According to officials at the division of weather forecast, the winds from the Arabian Sea obstructed humid monsoon wind from the south that was heading west. According to Mandira Rajbahak, senior meteorologist at the Department, the western winds weakened the monsoon winds limiting it to ground level. Monsoon rain can become active and turn to rain only after it gains height.

The summer rains in Nepal is a result of southern winds from Bay of Bengal and the eastern part of the Indian Ocean. The western winds, which have obstructed the monsoon winds from gaining height this time, is normally responsible for the winter showers.

The flow of the western winds at this time is not a normal phenomenon and is not expected to last long. So, officials at the DoM are keeping their fingers crossed that the monsoon will soon resume throughout the country although they are unable to give a fixed date. Meteorologist K.D. Shrestha of the DoM informed that clouds have been seen above the Bay of Bengal and it is likely that the monsoon winds will blow the clouds towards Nepal.

Amid worries of drought among the farmers and other people, Rajbahak claims that it is not a very unusual situation to become panic-stricken. There have been instances at times in the past when monsoon was delayed because of the western winds.

With the gradual decrease in the effect of the western winds, the present uncomfortable weather will come to an end. But, the drought will effect agronomical production. It is already quite late to begin plantation of rice. In Nepal, rice is planted from June 15 to July 15 for optimum production. This year most of the farmers have not yet started the plantation. Those who managed the plantation during the early showers are worried that the saplings might die due to lack of adequate moisture.

Rice, which is the staple food for most Nepalese, is the chief agronomical production of the country. Many farmers depend on the subsistence farming of rice along with other agricultural productions. Such a natural calamity is likely leave the people with famine.

Rice plantation requires a lot of water. With less than one fifth of the total cultivated area irrigated, farmers depend on monsoon rain for their crops. Only about 1 million hectare of land is irrigated out of 3.3 hectares cultivated with crops. Even out of this many irrigation projects depend on seasonal springs that sprout only after the torrential rainfall. The production of agricultural crops is largely affected by irrigation. “The production in the irrigated land is double the production in the un-irrigated lands,” says Narayan Koirala, chief Agronomist at the Agronomy division of the Nepal Agricultural Research Center (NARC).

Nepal’s economy is largely dependent on the agricultural productions. Agricultural, Fishery and Forestry had over 40 percent contribution to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) last fiscal year. Past experiences have shown that proper monsoon rain has had a large impact in the GDP.