Angul: With the Met department expecting the climate to be conducive for agricultural harvest given the timely arrival of monsoons, the farmers are an elated lot here.
Despite suffering heavy losses due to lockdown restrictions, the farmers have not lost hopes and bank on the monsoons to boost their agricultural produce.
The district administration has already chalked out plans to support the peasants in every possible way for the Kharif season, primary being making seeds and fertilisers available to them, it was learnt.
As per the information shared by the Department of Agriculture, a total of 87,050 hectares of land will be under Kharif cultivation this year. Of this, 83,848 hectares will be under paddy cultivation while 3,202 hectares are earmarked for non-paddy cultivation.
Of the 87,050 hectares of land available for Kharif cultivation, 68,485 hectares have irrigation facilities which mean the benefits of a timely monsoon could be cashed upon to maximize produce, it was learnt from sources.
Keeping this in view, the district administration has decided to expedite the supply of seeds and fertilisers to the farmers.
“The district requires more than 7,000 quintals of paddy seeds. Of this, 6,961 quintals have already been supplied to the farmers. The rest 480 quintals will reach them soon. In comparison to last year, an additional 1,000 quintals seed have been supplied this year,” said district chief agriculture officer, Bholashankar Behera.
“Similarly, non-paddy seeds like black gram, green gram, pigeon pea (arhar) seeds, groundnut seeds will be supplied as per the demand of the farmers. But the department is yet to receive these seeds. Green gram seeds are still lying in the farm. They will be supplied after testing,” he said.
When asked about the availability of fertilisers, he said that there was no shortage of fertilizers.
“For the current Kharif season, 14, 200 MT fertilisers are required. The district has enough stock of DAP and Potash. We have 5, 00 quintals of Urea fertilisers. More such fertilisers are expected to reach this month,” he said.
“Labourers who used to work out of the state have returned back to their villages. So, our top most priority will be to implement all the agriculture related schemes and to engage all of the labourers. We are hopeful that this year there will be a good harvest,” he further added.
PNN