Mahakalpara: Kendrapara’s cashew farming is staring at a bleak season due to low yield this summer. Usually by March-April, cashew farmers become very active. However, with increase in pollution levels and climatic changes in the district, production of cashew fruit has been hit hard this season, a report said.
It also should be stated that production had suffered the last couple of years also due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
Farmers have attributed the poor production to the drastic increase in pollution in the district. Due to it, the cashew trees are not producing the fruit the way those normally do. Along with cashew, production of paddy and mango have also been drastically affected, farmers pointed out.
Farmers of Batighara, Rajnagar, Mahakalpara and other blocks in Kendrapara mostly depend on cashew and mango production for their livelihood. Almost all the farmers of Ramnagar, Pitapat and Bahakuda villages are cashew growers. They have been into cashew farming since 1973.
The cashew orchard is spread over approximately 354 acre of land with 10,000 trees in Ramangar. Similarly, there are around 5,000 trees on 233 acre of land in Pitapat and another 5,000 trees on 182 acre in Bahakuda.
Pollution from factories near the Mahanadi river is severely affecting the crops. The rising pollution has taken a heavy toll on the blossoming, flowering and leafing process of the cashew crop.
“Cashew production has been delayed due to pollution and climate change. Essentially, flowering should have happened by now, but it did not. Pollution must decrease and some steps must be implemented to protect the cashew trees,” farmer Bijay Kumar Samal said.
“From mid-2020, all farming activities got suspended due to the national lockdown. We had suffered heavy losses then. Adding to our woes is the rising pollution,” another farmer complained.
Cashew is a cash crop and due to the pollution, there is a heavy toll on the production, which has affected the income of majority of the farmers, another farmer pointed out. “One has to also find out ways to control the climatic change,” he added.
Considering the loss in crop yield, the administration must ensure that farmers get some compensation through government launched schemes, the farmers opined.