DHENKANAL: ERRATIC rainfall and lack of irrigation facilities have left farmers of Dhenkanal district worried. Share croppers are the worst hit.This crop season, less area has been brought under paddy coverage due to insufficient rain. According to official reports, the total cultivated land in Dhenkanal Sadar, Gondia, Odapada and Hindol blocks is 1.6 lakh hectares (ha). Broadcasting of seeds has been done in only 58,290 ha and transplantation of saplings carried out in 23,010 ha. Only 26.7 per cent land in these four blocks under Dhenkanal agriculture jurisdiction have irrigation facility as a result of which, farmers mostly depend on rain.
Under Kamakshyanagar district agriculture jurisdiction, only 10 to 20 per cent of the cultivated land has been brought under transplantation in four blocks of Bhuban, Kamakshyanagar, Kankadahada and Parjang. Irrigation coverage in these four blocks is 30 per cent. Even as water was released from Rengali right canal recently, it is yet to reach crops in high land. Apparently, the district received less than 43 per cent rain this year. District Agriculture Officer Gunanidhi Jena admitted to low rainfall and said farmers are being encouraged to adopt scientific farming techniques and plant cash crops that do not require much water for growth.
Meanwhile, the Dhenkanal BJP unit has urged the State Government to declare the district as drought affected. Former MP Rudranarayan Pany and former MLA Krushna Chandra Patra said farmers have been able to transplant paddy in only around 25,369 ha of land against the target of 94,900 ha by July 31.
Unofficial sources said a farmer, Sanatan Sahoo, had committed suicide in Parjang recently as his paddy saplings dried up due to want of water.
The BJP leaders alleged that due to faulty engineering of Rengali right canal, water is not reaching farm lands. They said at some points, the canal lies on low land whereas the crops are on high land while, the situation is opposite in other parts. “Farmers are not benefiting from the canal which is not engineered in a scientific way,” Pany said.