Residents might have to restrict their treats on mango and litchi this summer with weathermen fearing a low production of seasonal fruits because of uneven distribution of pre-monsoon shower between March and May.

The weathermen apprehend a similar effect of the weather condition on several varieties of crops grown during the summer.

“The winter conditions in Bihar usually prevail till February. But this year, it continued till March. As a result, the months of April and May in central India have been comparatively less,” said Ashish Sen, the director (radar) of Patna Met department, said.

“There have been very few instances of cyclonic circulation in the upper air over Jharkhand and Bengal during this period because of the less heating. In fact, there were only two instances such cyclonic circulations between March and May. The two incidents had minimum impact on the prevailing weather condition in Bihar. Besides, the number of thunder storms has been very few during the period,” he told The Telegragh.

Sen further said the overall pre-monsoon rainfall in the state till date was two per cent more than normal. “This is because of the extreme excess rainfall in two weeks during the corresponding period, while the remaining seven weeks were 100 per cent dry. Thus, even the excess rainfall in the two weeks was of less use to the farmers,” he added.

Agricultural experts said such conditions have had an adverse impact on the production of summer crops, including certain varieties of maze, paddy and fruits. “Pre- monsoon rainfall plays a major role in the growth of summer fruits such as mango and litchi and a variety of crops. Excessive dryness in the air adversely affects the size and quality of summer fruits. Besides, the plants become weak and cannot hold fruits intact. Farmers have to spend a lot on cultivation because they have to use additional sources of irrigation to maintain supply of water in their fields because of the uneven rainfall,” said Anil Kumar Jha, an agricultural expert.

He added that the state produces 14 lakh tonnes of mango and 3 lakh tonnes of litchi every summer.

Abdul Sattar, the assistant professor of meteorology at Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa, said: “High temperature, accompanied by low humidity and continuous blow of westerly winds, is very harmful for the growth of litchi and mango. Such conditions would lead to supply of poor quality of litchi and mango in the market.”

Farmers, too, are extremely worried over the adverse weather condition. “The seeds and skin of litchi are ready. Now it is the time of for its pulp to form. But if the dry spell continues, then the size of the pulp would be small. Such weather conditions would have a terrible impact on people like us, who completely depend on natural rainfall. Most farmers in Bihar belong to this category,” said Sudhanshu Kumar, a tiller from Samastipur.

“The farmers who have sown the seeds of green grams during the past 10 days would suffer a lot because of the prevailing dry and hot weather condition. The condition is good only for the half-developed green gram crops. Moreover, the farmers are affected by poor quality of green gram seeds supplied by the government. More than 30 per cent of the seeds are not germinating in Buxar district alone,” said Sudarshan Pandey, a farmer from Buxar.