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Only happy when it rains?
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN In Midnapore, West Bengal THE early onset of the Indian monsoon was meant to be good news for the country's farmers and the beleagured international food markets, bringing with it the prospect of a bumper harvest and a welcome check on soaring food prices. Instead, dozens of people have died as floods have swept the north west of the country and the newly planted rice seedlings are rotting off beneath the rain-lashed waters of the paddy fields. Agricultural scientists say the effect of the monsoon rains has been exacerbated by melting glaciers in the Himalayas, while the subsequent erosion of river beds has further contributed to the silting up of rivers downstream. Hundreds of thousands of people in eastern India have been stranded by the rising flood waters, which have killed at least 35 people in the last week. Major roads have been washed away and bridges destroyed, with soldiers and rescue workers drafted in to try to help those who have been marooned. Many villagers in West Bengal have been forced to seek refuge on higher ground and in the state of Orissa, more than 200,000 people in nearly 300 villages cut off. But the impact on India's rice harvest and world food prices may be of greater long-term significance. Even those farmers who have not been driven from their homes fear that the first rice harvest is already lost, while vegetable prices have shot up by 150 per cent after the early rains damaged crops. In the village of Gopal Chawk in Midnapore, one of the worst hit regions, farmers say the monsoon arrived two weeks earlier than expected, inundating the paddy fields and choking off the young growth. "We are not happy at all. There is too much rain and it is coming at the wrong time. It is too early and it the heavy rain is damaging the crops," said Tapan Kumar Sahu, a rice farmer. "Food prices are going up already and now the [rice] seed beds are damaged. I think the prices will be going up more now." As a strong wind whipped through the palm trees growing alongside the flooded paddy fields, the rain began to fall again. A few rice shoots poked above the surface, but most had disappeared below the rising waters. Farmers say that they have seen a change in the pattern of monsoon rains in recent years, with more intense rainfall falling for longer periods. "The time of the rain has changed, sometimes it is early and sometimes it is heavier and more extensive." In the nearby town of Sarada, Subhendu Nayak, a project worker with the Kajla Janakalyan Samity group which has been working with the villagers to try to alleviate their problems, said the flooding was becoming more serious. "Every year it is deeper and worse and these calamities are recurring," he said. "Without rain, no-one can survive, but if it excessive it is a curse, because the next crop will fail." After devastating flooding last year, children in Gopal Chawk have been receiving training in how to use makeshift rafts fashioned from banana trees to rescue those too old or infirm to escape the rising waters. Ashilash Panda, a 14-year-old boy, described how he and several other children had helped some of those trapped by the floods to reach higher ground. "We used the bamboo stems as a boat to bring them to the school," he said. "It was raining heavily and we knew it was going to flood and which homes were going to be flooded. I went to one house with several other children and we went to the houses to get the people." Atashi Pahari, a 15-year-old girl, said the effects of the flooding went beyond the immediate displacement of those whose homes were inundated. "We have to skip meals because there is nothing for us or go to the local money lenders," she said. "But my family does not own its own land and if the harvest is lost to floods there are no seeds or money for a second harvest and we still have to pay the landowner." The majority of Indian farmers rely on the monsoon, with less than half of the country's agricultural land under irrigation, and the early onset of the monsoon, with rainfall in June more than 40 per cent higher than average, had raised hopes of an improved harvest and a fall in food prices. But officials in the east of the country are concerned about the effects on food prices. "We have asked the directorate of agriculture to contact every district and assess crop damage," said Naren Dey, the agriculture minister of West Bengal. Dr Debdutt Behura, an agricultural scientist based in Orissa, said that since 2002 there had been a change in the pattern of the monsoon. "People talk about unusual temperatures and they are saying that the rainfall is becoming more and more abnormal." He said part of the problem was due to the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, which had led to increased water flows and silting up of the river courses. But he said while farmers in the flooded areas would lose out, there may yet be better news for drought affected parts of the country away from the coastal regions. "When there is abnormal or good rainfall there, there is a good harvest," he said. "This will help the farmers in the inland districts."
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