The monsoon's early arrival has not only brought cheer on the faces of the farming community of this paddy-rich district but has also brought relief for agencies of the power-crunched state. Thanking the rain god, officials concerned said they were free from the tension of providing ample power to run tubewells for irrigating fields. A visit by a team of The Tribune to different parts of the district today revealed that due to timely rainfall, the state agriculture department and farmers expected a bumper crop this year. According to an official estimation, the hybrid paddy would be sown on nearly 50 per cent of the total cultivable land of the district. Nearly 1.70 lakh hectares was under paddy cultivation in Karnal. Deputy director, agriculture, Dr S.S. Dahiya today said the hybrid varieties, including JK-10, royal bhog and pepsi, had emerged as the most preferred among the range in the area. Besides high produce, these hybrid varieties consumed less water. He said normally the sowing of paddy started from June 16 and lasted for next one month but this season the early rainfall had encouraged the farmers for early sowing. It was indeed a heartening sowing season and farmers were expecting a considerable produce, said an agriculture scientist. The state agencies are also cheerful. "It was a tough challenge for us to provide ample power for paddy irrigation, but the early rain have certainly eased out the situation to an extent,' said a senior bureaucrat. Officials admitted that this year the state agriculture department had failed to discourage the local farmers against the sowing of saathi variety of paddy, which required enormous irrigation water. Despite identifying the farmers, the state agencies had failed to dissuade them due to the assembly byelections in Indri area of the district. According to the department, 1 kg of saathi variety required 4,000 litres of water.