Rudra Narayan Hota, a 50-year-old farmer of Santala village under Baranga Block of Cuttack district, hasn?t been able to cultivate most of his 11 acres due to lack of rain. Worse, he is unable to transplant paddy in about four acres because of non-availability of labour.
?The NREGS programme and the rapid industrialisation has led to farm labourers fleeing the villages,? rues Hota. The Rs-2-a-kg rice scheme of the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa has further accentuated the problem, he grumbles, pointing out that even share croppers have abandoned farmlands. This year, an erratic monsoon has aggravated the situation.
Orissa is 1one of the few states in the rice-growing belt in the east that has not declared a drought, but deficient rain has cast a shadow over the kharif crop in this state as well.
The tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj and Sundergarh districts have been the worst-affected with deficient rainfall of more than 50%, while Angul, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Sambalpur and Sonepur haven?t had enough rain.
?The average rainfall of the state by the end of August was deficient by 21%. Kharif cropping was affected in 15 districts of the total 30 due to deficient rainfall,? says state agriculture minister Dr Damodar Rout. He says though sowing is almost over in most parts of the state, paddy transplantation in many districts is not possible yet due to lack of water.
In the current kharif season, paddy and non-paddy cultivation have been taken up on 24.89 lakh hectares(ha) and 13.67 lakh ha, respectively, as on August 4 against the target of 36.50 lakh ha paddy and 21.98 lakh ha non-paddy coverage. Of the total area under kharif operation, 10.43 lakh ha are high land, which remained barren due to deficient rainfall.
?The state government is preparing a comprehensive non-paddy plan for affected areas,? says the agriculture minister. The agriculture department has started taking measures for non-paddy crops, mostly cereals, in areas where kharif crops have failed. The farmers would be encouraged to take up rabi crops like moong, black gram, arhar and cash crops like cotton, maize and sugarcane without delay. Steps are being taken to ensure availability of seeds and other agricultural inputs to farmers for rabi crops by September 15.
To save the standing crops, steps are also being taken to repair defunct borewells and lift irrigation points, with Rs 10.50 crore from the calamity relief fund.
But farmers are sceptical about diversification and marketing alternate crops. ?We burnt our fingers by undertaking sugarcane cultivation at the insistence of a sugar mill a couple of years back,? say farmers Dinamani Das and Sitakanta Hota. Seventy two-year-old Das, a rich farmer of Santala village having 15 acres, has also not been able to cultivate his land. But Hota of Dalabada, a nearby village, has been enterprising enough to cultivate all his four acres.
The farmers of Baranga block are, however, cultivating pulses, particularly green gram, during the rabi season. The production of pulses is mostly for local consumption.
?The volatility of the prices of pulses deter us from taking large-scale coverage?, says Purna Chandra Mohanty(75) of Kakola village. Mohanty, who has 15 acres of land, points out that the green gram prices, which is now about Rs 60 to 70 per kg, was sold at Rs 25 to 30 last year. Orissa, which had missed the first Green Revolution in 1960s, is gearing up to take full advantage of the second Green Revolution, but the state, like other states in the east, must first reduce its dependency on the monsoon.