Chikiti: Farmers of a large number of villages in the 17 panchayats of Chikiti block in Ganjam district are worried about drought due to low rainfall in the area.
The farmers who have already sown paddy seeds in their fields are waiting for rain as farmlands have already developed dry cracks. “If rains do not come in a week the seedlings will die,” a farmer said.
Even though rain arrived here in June it was scanty. Farmers of panchayats like-Soral, Sunupur, Jhatipadar, Gobindnagar, Girisola, Ekasinghi and Katuru were the worst hit as they have no irrigation facility.
According to reports from the agriculture department, the administration had set a target to cultivate paddy on 9,760 hectares in this block. However, only 8,137 hectares have access to irrigation facility while the remaining 1,623 hectare have been left dry.
These 1,623 hectares are heavily dependent on rainfall for paddy cultivation. Now, the paddy seedlings require at least 415 mm of rain following which they will be transplanted in the fields. But even though 40 days have passed after sowing of the paddy seeds there are no sign of rains.
While half of the state were negotiating flood like situation due to heavy rain triggered by the low pressure in the Bay of Bengal the farmers here were a worried lot.
“Every year it rains during June. But this year there is no rain at all. We are worried as we had started cultivation taking loans from various sources. What will we do now?” a farmer asked with tears in his eyes.
PNN