Karnataka: Deficit rain, no achche din for farmers yet

Bengaluru: In the first two months of Southwest Monsoon, the state has recorded 24 per cent deficient rainfall, causing worry to farmers. In the three meteorological regions – coastal, south interior and northern parts of the state – the rain is below average and the some of the weather forecasting models prepared by the Indian Meteorological Department show no positive signs of good rains in the days to come.

The long-range monsoon forecast issued in the first week of August has no excess rainfall prediction for the state. However, weather experts say that it’s too early to predict that the monsoon this season may fail. “We still have two more months. The IMD centre in New Delhi recently announced that the country as a whole will have 84 per cent of rainfall in the second half of Southwest Monsoon. It may be worrisome as the rainfall may further decrease over the state in the coming days. We had earlier predicted that during the last week of August, the rainfall activity would gain momentum over the state,” said an official from the IMD centre, Bengaluru.

Farmers are pinning hopes on rains this month, as the dry first two months have not allowed them to take up farming. Agro-meteorologists from UAS said farmers have lost an important portion of rainfall in 2015 and it will have its effect on crop production.

Rain in Bengaluru

Light to moderate showers were recorded in the city on Friday, bringing down the day temperature. The city recorded 5.8 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm.