Pune: Rangnath Bhise (45), a farmer from Londewadi in Jalna, might soon have to uproot the soybean crop he painstakingly sowed across three acres. A prolonged dry spell in Aug has left his plants withered.“I am waiting for some assistance from others, for I can’t uproot the crop alone. I can’t bear to look at my crops in this condition on the farm,” Bhise told TOI on Monday.Across Maharashtra’s soybean belt, an acute crisis is unfolding. The situation is particularly grim in Marathwada and Vidarbha, where soybean is a major source of livelihood for farming families.Suresh Jadhav’s well has dried up. Falling groundwater levels have made irrigation almost impossible for the farmer from Parbhani. “My well has dried up. The water pump works for only a few hours a day. I cannot water my soybean crop across four acres. Only govt can save us now by declaring a drought and providing financial support so that we can live to prepare for next season,” he said.Officials from the state agriculture department said the prolonged absence of rainfall had severely affected soybean crops across Maharashtra and a detailed assessment was under way.The state agriculture department will present its report on soybean crops in the cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday, said director (extension) Uday Deshmukh. “We are not authorised to provide information before it.”A senior department official said soybeans were particularly vulnerable to prolonged dry conditions during the present stage of growth. “It is a delicate crop and needs showers at regular intervals. Since Aug was almost dry in Marathwada and Vidarbha, the crop has been badly affected on lakhs of hectares. We are still assessing the ground situation in these two regions. But preliminary details are disturbing,” he said.Another senior official said there was a strong possibility of a significant decline in soybean production this year. “Some spells of rain might help save crops that are at a crucial stage before harvesting. That is the only hope,” the official said.Nagpur agriculture activist Vijay Jawandhia said the situation in Vidarbha has become increasingly critical with rising temperatures after the brief spell of cloudy weather. “There were cloudy conditions in some districts last week, but they disappeared over the past two days. We did not receive rainfall in Aug. The crop could survive so far because of moisture present in the soil, but now it will not sustain. We desperately need rainfall. In some districts in Vidarbha, even rainfall may not be enough to save the crop,” he said.The present period is crucial for soybeans as pods develop and seeds fill during this stage, said soybean expert Milind Deshmukh. “Prolonged moisture stress can therefore have a direct impact on both the yield and the grain quality.”Vilas Tathod, an agriculture activist from Akola, said the damage could be extensive. “Most farmers may not get even 40% to 50% of the expected harvest from the present crop because their soybeans did not receive water. The government needs to treat this as a priority, declare drought and help farmers so that they can prepare for the rabi season,” he said.Met department officials said rainfall remained deficient across Maharashtra. IMD (India Meteorological Department) scientist SD Sanap attributed the unusual rainfall pattern to the El Nino effect. “There is a possibility of light rainfall in the second week of Sept,” Sanap said.He said some districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha had recorded rainfall deficits of more than 80% in Aug, underlining the severity of the situation. “An El Nino year has been like this. In 2015, we received rainfall in June and even some cities were flooded, but the rest of the season was dry. This year again, we had good rainfall in July, but Aug was dry and the prediction is not favourable for Sept either,” Sanap said.
