Nearly 65% of the kharif crop acreage in the district has been damaged — that’s 1.3 lakh hectares out of a total 2 lakh hectares. Pune: A crop damage assessment released this week by the district agriculture office has offered the clearest picture yet on the devastating effect the deficient monsoon has had on farmers in the region.
District officials said the scale of damage this year is staggering. “It’s unprecedented,” said Vaibhav Tambe, the district agriculture officer. A sugarcane grower from Indapur, Sachin Lawte, said the year’s rainfall deficit crushed investments in the crop. Several portions of the field remain stunted,” Lawte said, adding that even if rainfall improves in the coming few days, recoveries are impossible. Pomegranate grower Baban Pandhare from Indapur, said: “An orchard requires round-the-year expenditure, irrespective of whether the crops generate income. Officials said the weak monsoon could even affect farmers’ ability to finance the next cropping cycle.
“Sugarcane losses are a big blow to farmers, particularly in Baramati, Indapur, Daund and Shirur tehsils, where rainfall has been scant. Even newly planted sugarcane is in a bad way,” he added. Like fruit orchards, sugarcane is a long-duration cash crop that needs substantial upfront spending. “We spent considerable sums to prepare our fields, buy planting material, fertilisers and labour. But there was no rain during the crop’s crucial growth stage. The impact on fruit orchards is equally worrying. Unlike seasonal crops, horticultural plantations require continuous maintenance and regular watering. With insufficient rain, we have struggled to water the trees. The stress has affected their growth and fruit development. We may suffer losses this season, but our bigger concern is the impact on the trees and their productivity in the coming years. Recovering an established orchard is not as simple as planting a seasonal crop again. The situation is particularly alarming for Pune district where tens of thousands of households rely on these crops for incomes.