Summary:
Normally, one-month-long wheat sowing starts from November 15 and lasts till December 15, but farmers resorted to delayed sowing lasting beyond December 31. "The disruptions caused to agriculture activities were visible during Rabi cropping season this year. "Unless a mechanism is developed to give a forecast of the emerging weather conditions even six months in advance in a year, no proper planning can be done. Similarly, efforts to promote plantation of commercially viable poplar trees, used in the making of match sticks, too, did not get wide acceptability. Otherwise, farmers depend on short-term ad hoc measures," Jha said.A few solutions offered include crop rotation, large-scale forestation and measures to augment moisture content in the soil..