Punjab had above normal rain in June, good for paddy

Ludhiana, Jul 6 (UNI) The monsoons which arrived 15 days in advance in Punjab is prooving to be benefical to agriculture, particularly the paddy crop in the border state.

According to Punjab Agricultural University's (PAUs),Department of Agricultural Meteorology, the distribution of rain in the month of June was fairly even, with all parts of the state receiving above the normal rainfall in the month.

PAU's Agrometeorologist, Dr K K Gill said that the normal rainfall for the month of June is 66.4 mm in Ludhiana but this year the month recorded 277.3 mm of rainfall, the highest in the last 40 years.

In the past 40 years, above 100 mm rainfall was experienced in 1970 (144 mm),1971 (116 mm), 1974 (141 mm), 1977 (112 mm), 1978 (146 mm), 1986 (106 mm), 1991 (152 mm), 1997 (105 mm), 2001 (221 mm) and 2008 (277.3 mm).

Agrometeorologists of PAU have observed that in the past four decades it was only 15 times that the rainfall remained above normal and 25 times it was below normal (66.4 mm). The lowest rainfall,that is 21.2 mm was recorded in June 1993.

In 2007, the month of June received 89.4 mm rainfall against the normal of 66.4 mm in Ludhiana. During the whole of the monsoon season last year,409.5 mm rainfall occured against the normal monsoon rainfall of 580 mm.

According to the weather details provided by Dr G S Bains, Head of the department of Agrometerology during the first week of June minimum temperature was only one degree celsius above normal but maximum temperature was near about four degrees celsius below normal,that is 36.2 degrees celsius against the normal of 40.7 degrees ceslius. Only 2.2 mm of rainfall was received against the normal of 8.8 mm in the first week of June in Ludhiana.

After that in the second week of June there was no significant change in minimum temperature but the maximum temperature was six degrees below normal along with the occurrence of above normal rainfall of 80 mm against 9.2 mm. With the occurrence of rainfall, the significant increase in relative humidity (RH) was observed.

The mean relative humidity was near about double during that particular period, that is 83 per cent against the normal of 46 per cent. After that in the second fortnight of June, both the maximum and minimum temperatures were below normal by nearly six degrees celsius and two degrees celsius respectively. A total of 90.6 mm rainfall was received during this week against the normal of 18.3 mm.Again, during this week the mean RH was 25 per cent higher than normal.

In the last week of June, both the maximum and minimum temperatures remained below normal by five degrees celsius and three degrees celsius respectively. The rainfall experienced during this week was 100.3 mm which was more than thrice the normal and 93 mm was received in a single day, that is on June 26, in Ludhiana.

Besides paddy, the rainfall was also good for sugarcane and horticultural crops but not so good for cotton and for some vegetable crops.The Agrometeorologists have advise farmers to drain out excess water from their fields and spray the crops only during clear days.

UNI HS BK1614