Courtesy of Circle of Blue  : With monsoon rainfall the lowest in over twenty years, farmers in Lucknow, India, are suffering through a drought that has left 50 percent of farmland unplanted, according to The Times of India. 

Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, recorded 192.3 mm in rainfall between June 1 and July 31. That is a 46 percent decline from the normal average rainfall for this period of around 360 mm.

The future looked bleak as State Met Director J P Gupta told the The Times of India that the monsoon trough line that was headed toward Uttar Pradesh (UP) had shifted toward the foothills of the Himalayas.

“There will be rains in the Himalayan region and areas adjacent to it in UP but [the] rest of the state would receive rains only in isolated places for next 2-3 days,” he said.

The Times reported that half of the agricultural land in Lucknow has not been sown because of the lack of rain. Mustard crops for example, were targeted for 800 hectares sown, but farmers were only able to plant about 400 hectares.

Gupta said that the monsoon may bring rain in a week or so as a low pressure area is currently developing over the bay of Bengal.

The Press Trust of India reported that Uttar Pradesh had declared 58 of 71 districts as “drought-hit”.

Editor's note: read more about India's Drought here   and here  .

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