Bihar is in the throes of a drought after around a 40 per cent deficit in rainfall from June 1 to August 14 this year.

It has severely hit the paddy crop and left chief minister Nitish Kumar worried about the situation. He has ordered his officials to ensure that seeds of short-duration crops are provided free of cost to the farmers to deal with the contingency.

“The situation of drought has come due to the apathy of the monsoon this year. The rainfall was 60 per cent below the average across the state in July due to which sowing of crops could not be done on time,” Nitish said.

“If we take the period from June 1 to August 14, there have been 39 per cent deficit in the rain due to which only 80 per cent paddy transplantation has been done,” Nitish added.

The long-term average annual rainfall for Bihar is around 1,000mm. The state this time suffered due to the early advent of summer with temperatures touching 40 degrees Celsius by mid-march, drying the ground and water sources. It was followed by a truant monsoon.Paddy is the most important crop of the state and the state government was eyeing its transplantation of over 35 lakh hectares of land and a production of 86 lakh tonnes.

Though Nitish said that 80 per cent of paddy transplantation has been done, the delay in it will add to the adverse impact on production apart from the scanty rainfall.Normally, farmers transplant paddy seedlings or small plants when they are 20 to 25 days old, but this time they had to wait for over 40 days because of the lack of rain.

The seedlings grew in the meantime and agriculture scientists say that the yield falls when such plants are transplanted.“Though the rain improved somewhat in August, we could still see a massive drop in paddy production in the state. It could be around 40 per cent less than our target,” an agriculture scientist working with the state government told The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.

The chief minister said that the state government is taking multiple steps to help the farmers and address the situation.“We are giving a subsidy of Rs 75 per litre of diesel to the farmers to help them irrigate their crops. So far 1.02 lakh farmers have applied for it of which 48,506 applications have been verified. We have provided diesel subsidies to 11,243 farmers so far. It will be provided to all the farmers who wish to avail it,” Nitish said.Nitish also pointed out that the government has reduced the price of electricity supplied through dedicated agriculture feeders to Rs 65 paise per unit to lessen the financial burden of irrigation on the farmers.

“Using electricity to run water pumps is around 20 times cheaper than diesel. We are supplying power 16 hours a day through agricultural feeders,” he added.The chief minister also said that the government would help farmers sow lesser duration crops like maize, kulthi (horse gram) and urad (black gram), peas and vegetables if they are unable to sow paddy this season.“The seeds for these short-duration crops will be made available free of cost to the farmers,” Nitish said.