BHUBANESWAR: The late arrival of monsoon and scanty rainfall in the month of June have seriously affected kharif crop operations in the State with the area covered under paddy cultivation till July 9 coming down by 40 per cent over last year.
Transplanting and broadcasting of paddy is going on along with raising of nurseries in just around 5.44 lakh hectares against 35 lakh hectares (ha) programmed by the Agriculture department for the current kharif season.
Though the department claimed that the overall crop condition is normal, many parts of the State depending on rain water for cropping were experiencing moisture stress conditions leading to shrivelling of seedlings due to excessive heat and lack of rains.
The State which experienced 26 per cent excess rainfall in May received 43 per cent less in June. The actual rainfall in June was 98.6 mm against average normal rainfall of 173.2 mm. However, an excess rainfall of over 5 per cent has been received in the first two weeks of July.
With the meteorological department predicting good showers in the next few days, sources in the Agriculture department said if the forecast comes true it will help in transplantation operations in midland and higher lands that largely depend on rain water.
According to the Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production, kharif paddy cultivation is undergoing in around 5.44 lakh ha against 9 lakh ha during the same period last year. The area coverage under cereal crops cultivation is about 6.9 lakh ha as against 10.94 lakh ha during last year.
The delayed monsoon has also severely impacted the vegetable cultivation in the State. The present area under vegetable cultivation is almost half of the area covered last year. Only around 1.81 lakh ha has so far been covered under vegetable cultivation against 2.68 lakh ha last year.
The paddy seed sale by the Odisha State Seeds Corporation has also been only 2.40 lakh quintal against a target of 4 lakh quintal. The corporation has a surplus seed stock of 30,000 quintal and government farms have 60,000 quintal.