Delayed monsoon posing serious problem: Pawar

September 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Thursday called for achieving higher food grain output in the rabi season "to compensate the production losses in the kharif season". Inaugurating a two-day conference on Rabi Campaign here, Pawar said: "The early meeting on rabi campaign will give a good opportunity to plan well in advance the steps needed to mitigate the situation arising out of the partial failure of kharif 2009." The government is monitoring the situation "very closely" and will ensure standing crops are saved, he said.

September 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that late end-season rains will help India's winter crops. Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Pawar said, "It's true that because paddy area transplantation has been dropped, but the late rains are very helpful particularly for Punjab, Haryana, Orissa and Chhattisgarh." "There would not be any pressure on food grains supply, as the stock position was good," Pawar added.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that the government will provide Rs 1,000-crore subsidy on diesel to paddy farmers for irrigation during the on-going Kharif season in order to provide relief to growers in times of erratic monsoon. "One major decision which the government has taken in yesterday's Cabinet meeting is to extend a budgetary provision of Rs 1,000 crore for the support of the (paddy) farmers who are using diesel pumps," Pawar said on Friday.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Friday that a weak and erratic monsoon in various parts of the country may adversely affect the paddy crop, and added that the government is drawing a contingency plan to deal with the situation. "Contingency plans are getting operationalised in the areas where dry spell is getting prolonged," Pawar said, replying to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha on the monsoon situation.

July 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Ahluwalia, on Tuesday said that since the budget has given a substantial boost to a slowing economy, there won't be any more stimulus packages for industry. "The Budget includes a very stringent boost, plan expenditure and investment.

July 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government would pay full attention to the farming sector this year as there is a serious drought situation in the country due to insufficient rains, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told parliament Monday. "In the last four years, we had good produce as there were enough rains.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Admitting that the delayed monsoon was a real and serious problem in north India, the government Friday hoped the situation will definitely improve. It is true that the whole country is worried about monsoon recession as on today, particularly Vidarbha, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is keeping a close watch on the delayed monsoon and its possible impact on agriculture, Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan said Friday, asserting that there were enough foodgrain to handle any unforeseen situation that might arise. We all know that there is a shortfall of monsoon in north-west India.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today warned that, North India facing drought-like situation, and states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi might face serious problems due to scarcity of rains. Pawar, however, said the Ministry of Agriculture has prepared two contingency plans to face the situation arising from the failure of monsoon.

July 2nd, 2009 LUCKNOW - After bringing in showers in parts of Uttar Pradesh, the monsoon that arrived in the state late this year has now gone weak due to changes in the wind pattern, met officials said Thursday. The easterlies that usually provide moisture to the monsoon winds from the Bay of Bengal have been replaced by westerlies.

June 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Brushing aside fears of a drought, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Sunday said that though the monsoon rains have been delayed this year, there is "no drought-like situation". "There is no drought like situation because of the delay in the monsoon and the losses would be compensated in the months of July and August...

June 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday said there is no drought-like situation in the country due to a delay in the onset of monsoon rains. "There is no drought-like situation in the country due to delay in monsoons and the loss would be more than made up for in the rains during July and August," Pawar said.

June 24th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Food grain production, especially of paddy, will be badly hit this year in Punjab if the monsoon was delayed further and the heat wave continued, agriculture experts here say. Punjab's agriculture department officials said though the panic button had not been pressed yet, paddy plantation could take a beating if the rains failed, especially given the acute water and power crisis in the state.

June 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - As a delayed monsoon creates concern for farm output, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked officials to monitor the situation closely on everyday basis. Seasonal rains have stopped in the tracks near Mumbai in the absence of a strong surge.

June 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi will continue to bake for another 10 days due to a delayed monsoon. According to the Met department, the monsoon reached Mumbai Sunday and is expected to hit the national capital around July 1.