Deficient monsoon hits crop in north Orissa

The deficient and erratic monsoon in the state has taken its toll on the agriculture operations in the state during this year's kharif season. The early signs of damage to the standing paddy crops have been observed in many blocks of Mayurbhanj district in north Orissa which is one of the worst hit districts.

Moreover, production could not be taken up in 27,561 hectares out of the total agricultural land of 3.27 lakh hectares in Mayurbhanj district due to inadequate rainfall. Besides Mayurbhanj, the kharif operations have also been impacted in some blocks of Sundergarh district.

For the areas in the state hit by deficient rains, it has been decided to provide seeds to the farmers to enable them to kick off pre-Rabi season operations.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday, reviewed the impact of deficient and erratic monsoon on kharif agricultural operations in the state. The state minister for agriculture Damodar Rout; agriculture secretary U P Singh; cooperation secretary Mona Sharma and water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra were present at the meeting.

“Most of the blocks in Mayurbhanj district have received deficient rainfall and the standing paddy crops have turned yellowish in many areas of the district. Production could not be taken up on 27,561 hectares of land in the district due to deficient monsoon”, said Rout.

Similarly, in Sundergarh district, transplantation could not be done on around 9000 hectares of land even though sowing was done on 88,000 hectares due to deficient rainfall. The kharif operations have been by and large normal in Kalahandi district where cotton cultivation has been done on 36,000 hectares while maize has been raised on 27,000 hectares.

It has been suggested by the Chief Minister that the farmers in the areas hit by deficient monsoon should be be provided seeds by September 15 for kicking off early Rabi operations, the minister informed.

Asked if the state would be able to meet the targeted agriculture output for the current fiscal, he said, “We have set a foodgrains production target of 9.2 million tonnes for this fiscal but it would be difficult to say at this moment if we can meet the target.”

It may be noted that 41 bocks in districts like Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Deogarh were facing a rainfall deficit of 50-80 per cent. Only 91 blocks of the state in the coastal districts like Cuttack, Khurda and Ganjam have recorded ore than normal rainfall in the months of June, July and August.

Due to deficient monsoons, the the reservoir levels have plunged and this has affected the availability of water for irrigated lands.

While the situation is okay in case of large irrigation projects, medium and minor irrigation projects do not have adequate water and to tackle the situation, it has been decided to run more and more lift irrigation points.

It may be noted that the overall rainfall in the state has been deficient by 36 per cent in June, 14 per cent in July and around two per cent till the 16th of this month.

However, the rainfall has been deficient by 20 per cent in 11 districts of the state till August 16.