A Quarter Under Desertification

What does this mean for India where more than 60 per cent of the population depends on agriculture?

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EVERY YEAR during the monsoon, Hemant Waman Chowre faces a peculiar problem. On the one hand, he hopes for good rainfall to water his crops but on the other, he is scared, for even a mild shower can destroy his saplings.

Chowre is a 35-year-old farmer in Dragon, a village in Sakri block of Maharashtra’s Dhule district. His 1.5-hectare (ha) farm sits on a gentle slope at the tail of the Sahyadri mountain range, or the Western Ghats, that marks the western periphery of the district. The topography is marked by barren lands, scarce trees, and shallow soil. “The soil is just 15 cm deep,” Chowre says. The annual average rainfall in Dhule is 674 mm—a little more than what Rajasthan receives—and when it rains, the water rolls down the hill, washing away the topsoil along with saplings. “I had to plant saplings twice in 2018,” says Chowre. “When my soya bean got washed away, I planted bajra (pearl millet).” In neighboring Vardharne village, Vilas Rajaram Gowli points to a hole, resembling a fox’s burrow, in his field. On July 22, when Down To Earth (DTE) visited Dhule, the region had received just over 100 mm of rain. “We have had only 10 percent of the rainfall this season and you can see holes everywhere. By the end of the season, the entire topsoil will be gone,” he says.