Water scarcity to hit sesame yield across Gujarat this summer

Senior agriculture department officials said the average yield is likely to remain under 1,000 kg. Last year,the yield was between 1,200 and 1,500 kg per hectare.

Praful Patel,a farmer from Amreli said: “There was no water available for irrigation,and the previous month was bad too. This has affected the yield.”

Jamnagar farmer Purshottam Siddhpara said: “As there was not enough water available,first we reduced the cultivation area. But now with water hardly available anywhere,we have not been able to properly irrigate even the limited sowing area.”

According to the figures available with the agriculture department,last year,the sowing was done on 63,000 hectares in eight districts of Saurashtra-Kutch,which has reduced to 32,000 hectares this year.

Except Porbandar,which recorded excessive rainfall,all the other districts this year have registered a downturn.

The worst affected has been Junagadh district,where the cultivation area has shrunk from 34,290 to 15,090 hectares.

The cultivation area in Rajkot has shrunk by some 6,000 hectares from 7,514 to 1,521 hectares. For Amreli,the reduction in the cultivation area has been from 4,365 to 604 hectares. In Surendranagar the area has reduced from 8,680 to 5,550 hectares. Jamnagar,which received adequate rainfall,has also seen reduction in the cultivation area from 6,140 to 5,665 hectares. Only Porbandar has registered an increase in the cultivation area by over 2,000 hectares from 555 to 3,000 hectares.