"Monsoon playing truant with us?" OR "We are playing truant with monsoon?"

The other day an young and entrepreneurial upcoming farmer from an interior Telangana district called me up in the wee hours to pour out his apprehensions. Sir, the gathering clouds are evading us over the last few days. *Lingaiah* is a four acre farmer. He has leased in 6 more acres of red sandy land for cotton culture. He has so far invested around Rs30,000 on farm operations coupled with sowing the seed. All this some 15 days ago. The sowing was followed by an inconsequential single event of littoral rainfall, which is believed to have played a spoilt game. The farmers will have to buy the costly cotton seeds for a second time. Yet another young and entrepreneurial farmer from yet another Telangana interior called me to say that the littoral rainfall, which followed the sowing helped in sprouting.
Seedling could be seen across the farm but he feared the souring day temperatures. The high side of day temperatures are followed by the gathering of thick clouds in the evening. But they are invariably evasive. He was trying his best to provide a life saving wetting incurring heavy costs. The water needs to be transported from distant places and hand wetting is a tedious job and he can not simply follow it up for a second time in case of the persisting sweltering heat during day time and the monsoon going evasive over weeks together. He too seems to have given up hope. It was now my turn to take on them. There is an aside here interrupting us before going to it. These episodes have got larger messages.
The Telangana farmers will buy the costly seed for a second time. The seed companies would have doubled their volume of sales. The farmer's woes go to line up the pockets of companies. Let me now come back to the point.

I was posing a series of queries asking them to self- check whether what they are doing is not insane? They had a very considerable rain- about 30mm on an average-in the first fortnight of June. True that the rainfall events are far and few in between. But what part of the rainfall do they put to best use in their respective farms? Pat came the reply. Hold your breath.
A paltry one fourth to one thirds? Two thirds to three fourths of the average 30mm of rainfall was let out. To be precise, the farm holding was left with a rainwater equivalent of 7.5mm -10mm of rainfall. The rest - a rainwater equivalent of 20mm-22.5mm of rainfall was simply allowed to run away from the poor upland rain fed farm holdings. I was also trying to translate it to them in terms of real visible quantities of water. One MM rainfall over an extent of one hectare yields in 10 cubic meters of water-say 10,000 liters. In case of an acre, it is 4 cubic meters (4,000 liters) See the following arithmetic.

*I) Gross under utilisation of rainfall? Plug it!*

The volume of water retained and foregone in the case of the first farmer with 10 acre holding could be as follows.

Retained on farm holding: 10 acres X 4 cubic meters X 10mm= 400 cubic meters= 4,00,000 liters (on the high side at one thirds retained) Left out: 10 acres X 4 cubic meters X 20mm= 800 cubic meters= 8,00,000 liters

*II) Capillary moisture support? Punadi Tema or Talli Tema? *

Indeed, they do not need the arithmetic so much for the simple reason that they are deeply aware in their heart of hearts that they are at that rate far under utilising the rainfall. I knew this. Next, I was trying to probe with them as to what could be the tangible benefit assuming all the 1200 (400+800) cubic meters are channeled to feed the soil spread evenly across the farm. Cursory land levelling and bunding will do the job for us. The farmers readily answered - they had a clear knowledge of the dynamics-that NIMMU (capillary moisture support) will keep coming up. The sweltering heat from the side of the tropical Sun shall be responded by the upcoming moisture support. The farm will benefit and it will not loose. To be sure, the sowing would have not gone an exercise in waste. Sprouting would have taken place all around and the seedlings benefited too. Here is a defense against the sweltering heat.

*III) Planting bunds-internal and external- to check the invasive heat waves! *
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Taking the logic further, I was trying to probe whether they do also consider putting an effective check against the predatory and invasive heat wave inspired by the tropical Sun. They readily agreed. This will go a long way in checking the huge day light robbery of the scarce soil water and moisture reserves. The idea is that a strong component of perennial trees would be in built to the farm. Economically rewarding tree component will make its presence not only on the outer boundary of the farm holding but on the internal bunds too. The perennial bunds bound tree component may be pruned presaging the monsoon season and incorporated to the soil along with the crop residue. Coming back to the specific cases of our farmers, the seedlings would have found yet another (two fold) key source of defence. The seedlings would have been set free of the moisture stress. The seedling stock would have been lft healthier, which will have a bearing on the crop productivities. Note that the defence is two fold and from two sources namely the biomass incorporated to the soil helps in making a dent in a) the intensity of sweltering heat on the soil part besides b) putting a check to the invasive heat wave.

*IV) Round the year live green house across the farm to make a dent in to the high side of PET losses*

Imagine, the foregoing is reinforced by the shade giving and yet economically rewarding crop species encompassing the entire width and breadth of the crop area. The sowing of these fast growing species will accompany the principal crops/crop and this is supposed to long last across the year. The species capable of withstanding the moisture stress could be chosen. This brings in yet another source of defence- the shade- to the crops. The shade crop or so to say the umbrella crop shall add yet another powerful dimension. The relevance of the umbrella crop figures out seen against the backdrop of the persisting sweltering heat through out the duration of the south west as well as the north east monsoon seasons. It is like isolated rainfall events taking place during the hot summer season? The summer season has extended in to the monsoon seasons? The monsoon season in the recent past - advanced post GR (green revolution) period- is no more marked for its characteristic shrill moist weather as in the pre GR period. The virtuous cycle of orderly scaling up of the moisture build up in the atmosphere beginning with June at one side and the rhythmic pattern of rainfall known for its orderly accent and descent at the other (characteristic of the pre GR period) has become a thing of the past. June and September shared 20% each of the season's rainfall known for their entry and exit points respectively where as July and August with their respective share of contributions at 31 and 29 yielded in the lion's share of seasons bounty. The ascending and descending order is particularly noteworthy. The virtuous cycle of the pre GR finds now replaced by a vicious cycle. The cumulative total of major and minor events of rainfall fail to contribute to the moisture build up in the atmosphere. That indeed is the reason behind the erratic, unpredictable and scattered and isolated rainfall events. Each rainfall event- major or minor is subject for a terminal consumption by the dry weather. The dry weather accompanied by the sweltering heat costs the soil moisture dearly in terms of the unduly higher side of PET (potential evapotranspiration) losses. The higher side of PET losses rob away the soil moisture reserves. The umbrella crop goes a long way in safeguarding the soil moisture for the benefit of the standing crop at one side and for the benefit of the future crops.

*V) Dense carpet cover of biomass and managing the littoral rainfall*
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Indeed the foregoing is all about managing the heavy rainfall part of the total seasonal rainfall. The heavy rainfall claims a share of 60% of the seasonal/annual rainfall. We were concerned about the farmers letting out about 40%-45% of the 60% stake of the heavy rainfall. The farmer is indeed left behind with 15% -20% of the share of the heavy rainfall. Another 40% of the share of the rainfall goes to the credit of the littoral rainfall. All rainfall events measuring below 23mm (critical rainfall) of rainfall are grouped under the littoral rainfall. Littoral rainfall hardly yields in run-off. The littoral rainfall is more vulnerable in the sense that is subject for instantaneous evaporation. A dense carpet cover of biomass alone can optimally harvest-recharge and safeguard the littoral rainfall. We may expect to accumulate the voluminous biomass from the round the year live green house. Thus the round the year live green house delivers the two fold job of holding out a skyline barricade against the scorching Sun and it contributes for the harvesting of littoral rainfall.

*V) Propelling the infrastructure build up for the return of an orderly pattern of rainfall*
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Stamping out the gross under utilisation of rainfall followed by erection of barricades against the invasive heat waves and in the same order raising an umbrella live green house to guard against the scorching Sun and finally piling up of a dense carpet cover of biomass across the farm area are the strategic inputs to begin rebuilding the infrastructure without which we can hardly hope to put an end to the monsoon playing truant with us. Round the year live green house together with the dense carpet cover of biomass stand guard to the soil moisture reserves vis-a-vis the scorching Sun. The point is this. The arresting of the higher side of the PET (potential evapo-transpiration) losses sets the stage for building soil water and moisture savings that run in to the next consecutive year. The same process repeating year after year, we would have built up the soil moisture and groundwater to the saturation level.

*VI) Making the Monsoon to return to normalcy*
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It is time that the round the year live green house begins drawing on both the soil water and moisture reserves and the groundwater reserves as well if only to build back the atmospheric water reserves. The soil, ground and atmospheric water reserves coupled with the perennial on farm vegetation make in to the infrastructure and in other words the hydel green house is resurrected and ready. The hydel green house is the one, which regulates the hydrological cycle. It regulates the inwardly mobile (the moist laden monsoon winds- from the oceans to the landmass) as well as the outward bound half (from landmass to the high seas and oceans) of the hydrological cycle. The high point relevant in our context is that the vegetation keeps pumping out soil and groundwater in to the atmospheric circulations.
The atmospheric circulations are categorised in to three typologies based on the size wise range viz micro scale circulations (5 kms), meso scale (500kms) and major (3000kms). The part of landmass bound atmospheric circulations are known to come in close touch and interact with the moist laden inwardly mobile monsoon winds. The interaction between the two sides of moist laden winds helps in the orderly precipitation. It helps shape up the rhythmic pattern of rainfall.

The GOAP instead of following the road map suggested here is seen trying to pick on the moisture laden monsoon winds by an artificial manse i.e., cloud seeding unsuccessfully though over the last few years. Even in case of cloud seeding fructifying, the isolated rain events taking place against the backdrop of a soil cast in the prying pan mode makes little sense. Contrast it with the prospect of a rhythmic pattern of rainfall making a common cause with the vast pool of water and moisture making its presence across the ground below and the atmosphere above. The combine viz rhythmic pattern of rainfall against the backdrop of the vast pool of water and moisture reserves covering the ground level as well as the atmospheric zones makes a rich sense for raising crops.

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*FORUM FOR TROPICAL WATER*
*29-06-09/HYDERABAD/INDIA