Sanjeev Kumar Patro

Bhubaneswar: When a high of 17 districts in Odisha have witnessed deficient rainfall till today, the farming activities have been severely effected in the whole of Bhadrak district.

As per the preliminary findings of a joint study made by OUAT and IMD Bhubaneswar, as of  today, cultivation has been impeded greatly in at least around 30 blocks or ten per cent of the total blocks in the State owing to less than normal rainfall during the current Monsoon.

While farming has taken a hit in all the blocks in Bhadrak and Gajapati following lack of rains, four each are affected in Jajpur, Kandhmal, Ganjam and one (Bahanga) in Balasore. The soil moisture in Gajapati is enough for only less water intensive crops, revealed the study.

A glance at the findings, however, revealed that the farming activities were greatly hampered in nearly 150 blocks of the State till the third week of July. Good amount of precipitation during the last five days had saved the day. The rainfall has now provided enough moisture in the soil in districts like Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Ganjam, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Bolangir, Kalahandi etc for paddy cultivation.

However, the caveat here is the districts have to witness moderate rainfall in the month of August. And if one goes by the predictions, then Odisha will record good precipitation in the month of August.

As the monsoon trough today is passing through Sambalpur and Paradip and extending up to east central Bay of Bengal, the forecast by Skymet for August 3 is moderate rainfall will be recorded in the entire coastal belt of the State, except at 2 or 3 places. The rest of the State will experience light rainfall, reads the forecast.

Meanwhile, as per the local met officials, the heavy rainfall witnessed today in southern Odisha has been attributed to existence of a cyclonic circulation over north Andhra - south Odisha coast. Malkangiri has borne the brunt of rainfall today.

As per the IMD forecast regarding Monsoon rainfall in August-September, the country will be witnessing normal monsoon rainfall in the last leg. The reason: The weather analysis by IMD shows that the El Nino condition is now neutral to weak. And such condition will continue till the end of Monsoon period in India.

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