Indian Drought Worst in 10 Years

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Indian Drought Worst in 10 Years

Indian Government Says Lack of Rain Is the Worst in 10 Years and Is Threatening Crops

The Associated Press

NEW DELHI, India July 24 — With a long dry spell ruining crops in northwest India, the agriculture minister said Wednesday that conditions in the country's breadbasket are the worst in a decade.

Ajit Singh met with federal and state officials to discuss immediate steps to prevent wide-scale crop failure and food shortages. No details from those meetings were released.

"If it doesn't rain in the next five to 10 days, the situation will be alarming," Singh told the representatives from 12 states. They are the worst hit by the absence of monsoon rains and the long dry spell in the agricultural heartland of northern and western India.

The scant monsoon rains have played havoc with India's agriculture, especially in areas where irrigation networks are not fully developed. Even in irrigated areas, some reservoirs are nearly empty.

While there are extremely dry conditions across the region, no entire state has declared an official drought, nor has the federal government. However, Singh said reservoirs are at 48 percent of where they were last year and that rivers and ground water are both low.

"This is the worst drought-like situation in the past 10 years," he said.

Among the affected areas are the major rice- and cereal-growing states of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. In India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, state officials declared 21 districts as drought-hit and sent drinking water to the driest areas.

The monsoon is crucial to India's farm output. About 80 percent of the country's rainfall occurs between June and September. Two-thirds of India's one billion people depend directly on agriculture for their livelihood, and farming contributes about 25 percent to gross domestic product.

While drought-like conditions persisted in some areas, thousands of mud and thatch houses were washed away in the eastern state of Bihar and in northern Assam following heavy downpours.

The U.S.-based Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies said India's northwestern region was not likely to receive rain until Friday, and predicted that even then it would be scanty. Indian meteorologists have said substantial rain may not arrive until the first week of August two months late.