Farmers stare at loss of cotton, soybean crop in parched Maharashtra.

Farmers in Maharashtra were hopeful of good harvest this kharif season. The sowing also started in right earnest after showers were plentiful in the first few days of the season. A month into the monsoon however, Kailash Mhatre, a farmer from Jalna district, is distraught. The long gap between spells of rains has dried up early sown soybean and cotton, and the recently sown ones also face lower germination capacity. A big deficit in monsoon rainfall would hit productivity of major cash crops such as soybean and cotton.