BHAWANIPATNA: With Covid-19 crisis impacting the just-concluded rabi season in the State, the district administration is gearing up for the upcoming kharif season to bail out farmers. Presiding over a preparatory meeting through virtual medium on Thursday, Collector Parag Harshad Gavali chalked out a strategy in consultation with Chief District Agriculture Officer Prasanta Behera, agriculture experts and farmer representatives.
A target to use 1,98,248 hectare of land for paddy, 14,305 hectare for maize, 54,920 hectare for different kinds of pulses, 16,285 for oil seeds, 27,236 hectare for vegetables and 65,000 hectare for cotton was set in the meeting. The net crop area was pegged at 3,83,721 hectare and total crop area at 4,11,666 hectare with 27,945 hectare reserved for inter-cropping.
Besides paddy, cotton cultivation would be given prominence and its coverage increased to 65,000 hectare this kharif season as opposed to the 60,000 last year. Land devoted to pulses and maize will also see an increase of 4,000 and 2,368 hectare respectively but oil seed coverage would see a reduction. The focus would be on crop diversification for remunerative cash crops, promotion of agro mechanism and entrepreneurship, coverage of more areas under irrigation with proper water and crop management to increase productivity.
Alongside, a smooth distribution plan for required seeds and fertilisers was also proposed in the meeting. For successful implementation of such strategies, it was planned to bring 61.63 per cent of kharif areas under different irrigation sources. Out of these, 87,828 hectare will be irrigated by the Indravati project, 17,773 hectare by Utei and Ret medium irrigation projects and 23,956 hectare by 139 minor irrigation projects.