BHUBANESWAR: With the Meteorological department predicting low-pressure-induced rains for four days beginning Wednesday in eight coastal districts, the state government has advised farmers in these areas to step up the paddy harvesting process which is in the ripening stage.
The advisory jointly issued by director of Agriculture and Food Production Rohit Lenka and OUAT dean extension Prasanjit Mishra for the farmers of Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore and Jajpur said they should speed up the harvest of ripen paddy (85 per cent grains matured and pale yellow) and store them in safe places.
While the harvesting of autumn paddy is going to be over, medium-duration paddy is in the harvesting stage. Since duration paddy is in the flowering to milking stage, farmers are advised to drain out water from paddy fields before rains to save the crop from waterlogging.
Since moong, biri and groundnut crops are in the ripening stage, care should be taken to drain out water from the field to save the crops. The farmers have also been advised to contact the nearby Krishi Vikas Kendras, Regional Agriculture Research Centres and agriculture officers of the locality for proper guidance or call on toll-free number 155333 to get the desired service.
As planting of vegetable crops has begun, there is the possibility of damage to these crops in case of moderate rains. As per the local IMD report, light to moderate rainfall will occur in some coastal districts on November 15 and the intensity of the rain will increase on November 16. There will be moderate to heavy rain over the north coast of Odisha on November 17.