Aug. 9: The signs are ominous: a cloudless sky and furrowed foreheads of farmers looking heavenwards for divine intervention. Rain-deficient Cachar and Hailakandi are preparing for a spell of drought at a time when the monsoon should have been at its peak.

According to a report compiled by the agricultural department, both Cachar and Hailakandi districts have received 30 per cent less rain than is considered normal at this time of the year. Unable to fathom the reason behind this climatic change, hapless farmers have been left wondering how they are going to make up for the inevitable crop loss.

“Every year, around this time of the monsoon, we get incessant rain and floods. This year, there is hardly a trace of rain clouds in the sky,” a Cachar farmer said.

A recent meteorological study revealed that Assam has actually been “rain-deficient” for more than a decade.

At least four other states of the region — Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura — have had deficient rainfall for nearly a quarter of a century.

“These statistics put into perspective what the situation actually is,” D. Chakrabarti, deputy director general of the Regional Meteorological Centre said.

Farm scientists and agriculture department officials have estimated a 15 to 20 per cent decline in the output of sali, the staple food of the rural inhabitants of Cachar and Hailakandi.

In Cachar, sali is grown in about 10,33,600 hectares of land and the total output last year was 2,13,962 tonnes, as against the seasonal requirement of 2.17 lakh tonnes.

The situation is no better in Hailakandi, where around 39,000 hectares of land are under sali cultivation. The agirculture department believes that about half of this cultivable land will not yield a good crop this season because of erratic rainfall and a marked rise in average temperatures.

The agony of farmers in Cachar has been compounded by the failure of the water resources department to maintain supply of water to irrigate farmlands.

Deep tubewells and medium-sized channels for irrigation have dried up for want of maintenance, which officials blame on the lack of funds.

Sirajuddin, who owns farmlands in Borkhola block of Cachar, said: “It is nothing short of a tragedy for farmers.”

Sushil Biswas, another farmer from Sonai block in Cachar, has been visiting the irrigation and agriculture department offices almost every week to plead for the revival of dormant irrigation projects in his block. It is anybody’s guess whether his pleas will make any difference.