Imphal, August 17: The State is in the grip of a severe famine next year due to the possible failure of this year's crops on the more than 50,000 paris of cultivated land if the yearly rainfall fails to come within the next few days.

Official sources from the Agriculture Department said that the State had witnessed normal rainfall of 896.6 ml during January till July this year.

However, the monthly fall had seen a steep decline after July and amount of rainfall was recorded at 14.34 ml less since then.

As a result, the fear of an acute famine looms large as cultivation would not be possible on the more than 50,000 paris of land in the four valley districts due to failure of rain, the sources said.

All the paddy crops cultivated in the fields of the valley districts have been severely affected by the draught when it is time for the crops' blooming and branching.

According to reports submitted to the Agriculture Department by respective Deputy Commissioners of the districts, around 30,000 paris in Imphal East, 15,000 paris in Imphal West and 5000 paris in Thoubal district have been affected by the failure of annual rainfall.

For Bishnupur district, severe cracks have not yet developed in the fields even though fields have been facing acute shortage of rainwater in the absence of proper irrigation.

Saving the standing crops in the fields would become difficult if the rain fail to come down within a day or two or the Government fails to provide water pump sets to the farmers, the official sources further said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Agriculture Department has submitted a report on the draught condition to the State Government on August 14.The situation this time could be much worse than the famine of 1999.During the earlier calamity, the Government provided 234 pump sets with horse powers ranging between 5 and 10 to the farmers.

However, transportation of the pump sets from one district to another will be a big problem and the water levels of rivers, ponds and lakes have become too low this time.

The possible step would be to revitalize the Minor Irrigation and IFC Departments.

The farmers also needs to be provided pump sets having 20-30 HP for pumping up water from the low river levels.

Meanwhile, the pradhan of Khonghampat Gram Panchayat O Bina Devi has sought the attention of the authorities saying Khonghampat area is facing a draught like situation.

The Maibakhul Union Club the farmers have suffered due to acute shortage of rain water in the around 300 paris of cultivated land in the area surrounding the Hangel Kacha Dam at Thinguchingjin.

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