ROURKELA: THE district administration has geared up activities for pre-positioning of kharif paddy seeds and fertilisers to avoid distribution chaos at peak time.
As kharif crops are sown with the advent of first rains, the administration has decided to streamline availability of seeds and fertilisers besides distribution of the same. At a joint meeting of the Agriculture and Cooperation Departments under the chairmanship of Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA) RN Satpathy it was also targeted to boost mechanised farming.
The DDA informed that the district has fertiliser stock of about 3,600 tonnes and about 6,532 quintals of paddy seeds after distribution of 5,451 quintals from April. The DDA informed that the number of farmers registering with DBT has increased from 54,000 last year to 71,000 and the registration process is underway.
During kharif season, the district with about 2.13 lakh hectare (ha) paddy land and one lakh ha non-paddy land requires about 30,000 tonnes of fertilisers and 16,000 quintals of paddy seeds. The remaining requirements would be sourced from various Government agencies in due course of time, he added. Despite all the measures, the administration is yet to hold district agriculture strategy meeting to chalk out kharif crop programme. Sources said, to end dependency of paddy farmers on monsoon in the rain-fed district, administration is increasingly discouraging cultivation in risky upland.
Plans are also afoot to cover 55,000 ha of low-land and 95,000 ha of medium land under paddy cultivation, he added. Usually about 63,000 ha upland are covered under paddy cultivation and it has been observed that at least 30,000 ha of upland remain on high risk of moisture stress condition in the event of deficit rainfall.
Satpathy said, after a success in 2016, they plan crop diversification on about 20,000 ha of the most vulnerable 30,000 ha upland and cover them with cash crops like sweet corn, ‘ragi’, maize, ground-nut, ‘arhar’ and other varieties of pulses which require less soil moisture to survive.