ROURKELA: With the objective of boosting rice production, the paddy cultivation target in the rain-fed Sundargarh district has been increased by 8,000 hectare (ha) to 2.12 lakh ha during the ongoing kharif crop season 2023. The decision was taken by the director of Agriculture and Food Production in the backdrop of the recent thrust on diversification of paddy crops on high land over economic and deficit rainfall concerns.
Sources said, the district as per the suggestion of the DAFP adopted a cropping strategy for paddy cultivation over 2.12 lakh ha in the District Agricultural Strategy Committee (DASC) meeting for kharif 2023 held belatedly on July 6. It is an increase of 8,000 ha as over the past two kharif seasons, paddy cultivation was done over 2.04 lakh ha.
Accordingly, 1,32,132 ha non-irrigated land and 79,868 ha irrigated land have been earmarked for paddy cultivation including 1.83 lakh ha under high yield variety, 17,000 ha for hybrid variety and 12,000 ha for local variety. It is learnt, 62,000 ha of high land and entire 95,000 ha and 55,000 ha of medium and low land respectively have been earmarked for paddy cultivation this time.
Reliable sources said over the past several years, thrust was increasingly laid on diversification of paddy crops with non-paddy crops on high land as paddy yield on high land reduces drastically and additionally carries risk of crop damage in the event of deficit rainfall.
A senior agriculture officer, on condition of anonymity, said the average paddy yield of the district is about 33 quintal per ha, while the yield from high land drops to 12-18 quintal per ha and hence uneconomical.
“Despite low paddy yield with risk of crop damage for erratic monsoon, majority of small and marginal tribal farmers are inclined for paddy farming on their high land as rice continues to be their staple food grain,” the officer said, adding, with no extra amount of medium and low land available in kharif 2023 the target for cultivation of additional 8,000 ha for paddy crops again extended to high land, may discourage farmers from next year.
However, discrepancies in the cultivation programme for kharif 2023 has come to the fore with the total cultivable land for paddy and non-paddy crops whimsically increased to 3.13 lakh ha. According to official record the district now has about 3.09 lakh ha of cultivable land after 4,000 ha were lost to mining, industrial and development projects over the past decade.