ROURKELA: After a long wait, the state government has finally recast the total cultivable land in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district on basis of actual availability of agriculture land to help prepare credible cropping programme for kharif crop season 2025.
Accordingly, 10,240 hectare (ha) of farmlands in Sundargarh have been kept out of the upcoming cropping programme as these are no more used for agriculture purpose. Over the past one and a half decade, these lands were believed to have been acquired for various mining, industrial and development purposes.
Reliable sources said till 2024, the kharif crop programming was done based on the total availability of 3,12,930 ha cultivable land. But in 2025 kharif season, a major change has been noticed in context of Sundargarh.
A letter from the chief secretary to all collectors on May 28 forwarded the cropping programme prepared by the Agriculture department for all districts for the kharif season 2025. For Sundargarh district, a total of 3,02,690 ha have been earmarked for cultivation, a shortfall of 10,240 ha. Hence, paddy cultivation this year would be tentatively carried out over around 1.98 lakh ha, while above 1.04 lakh ha have been earmarked for non-paddy crops.
Requesting anonymity, a senior Revenue official said it is obvious that the recasting of cultivable land in Sundargarh has been done on basis of the agriculture census. The census was the result of survey and data of the statistical unit of the Planning, Revenue and Agriculture departments.
While both revenue and agriculture authorities are tight-lipped over the whopping loss of farmland, it is learnt that changes in the cropping programme for the kharif crop season 2025 for 3,02690 ha in Sundargarh would be approved in the district agriculture strategy committee (DASC) meeting soon.
Sundargarh chief district agriculture officer (CDAO) JB Mallick said the DASC meeting is pending and declined to comment further.
However, a senior agriculture officer claimed that despite loss of 10,240 ha of farmland, there won’t be any adverse impact on overall food production capacity of Sundargarh. He said due to increase in assured irrigation coverage including about 29,000 ha covered with the mega lift irrigation projects, crop cultivation intensity and frequency have increased in the district. Stress is also being laid on modern farming for growth in crop output, he added.
In 2022, the district administration had conducted a survey which revealed loss of about 4,000 ha of cultivable land in four blocks including loss of around 2,600 ha of agriculture land in the major coal-belt of Hemgir. Additionally, Koida, Sundargarh Sadar and Gurundia blocks had accounted for loss of about 700 ha, 600 ha and 100 ha of farmlands respectively.