For the second year in a row, Orissa, the country?s fifth largest rice producer, has set a target of 80 lakh tonne of rice production during the coming kharif season.
Last year, due to devastating floods in the eastern region and prolonged dry stretches in the western states, rice production fell to 68.38 lakh tonne against a target of 80 lakh tonne in the state. In 2007-08, although the target was later revised to 76 lakh tonne, but it fell way short of the revised estimate too.
The state agriculture department wants to double seed replacement during the season to achieve the target.
The seed replacement rate will be enhanced to 25% from the present 12.5%. Out of the total seed requirement of 24 lakh quintals, the directorate had supplied 3 lakh quintals of high-yield seeds to farmers last season. This time it is going to supply 4.5 lakh quintals.
?The rise in rice productivity is directly proportionate to increase in seed replacement rate,? said state agriculture director Arabinda Padhi. ?The major focus of the department is on multiplication of breeder seed to foundation seed,? he said.
Orissa, which produced a record 92 lakh tonne of foodgrains in 2007-08, could produce only 86.5 lakh tonne (kharif final estimate and advance estimate for rabi) during 2008-09. The lower production against the target of 95 lakh tonne was because of floods which inundated vast farmlands in 19 coastal districts of the state and moisture stress in hinterlands during September-October 2008.
Rice is the principal food crop in the state with the crop being cultivated in around 44.47 lakh hectare. Of this around 41.18 lakh hectare is sown during the kharif season.