Date:27/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/27/stories/2008092754640300.htm

Other States - Orissa

ICAR moots cash crops to tide over crisis

Satyasundar Barik

State Government told to mobilise distribution of seeds

‘Vegetables cultivation best option for farmers’
More than 40 lakh people affected

Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Meeting of minds: Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare at the inauguration of the meeting of Indian Council of Agricultural Research regional committee at OUAT auditorium in Bhubaneswar on Friday. —

BHUBANESWAR: Indian Council for Agriculture Research on Friday asked the State Government to gear up its administrative machinery for mobilisation of huge quantity of seeds for cash crops to help farmers tide over the setback due to massive floods in Mahanadi river.

“The best option before the farmers is to start vegetables crop immediately. They will reap the harvest within 30 days and money will start flowing into their hands immediately to plan next crops,” ICAR Director General Mangala Rai said on the sidelines of XIX regional meeting here.

Fishing, another option

At the same time, groundnuts, green gram, black gram and short-term rice could be planned after floodwaters start receding from the land, Mr. Rai said.

Pointing out that fishing would be another viable option available before farmers. Mr. Rai also advised farmers to take care of their livestock as they would be prone to various diseases after the disaster.

On Friday, State government said more than 40 lakh people were affected in the current flood while crop area submerged and partially submerged was estimated to be 4,62,532 ha.

Prior to the flood, lakhs of farmers had struggled because of drought. After the floods, most of the paddy was now under a sheet of water. At some places harvesting of paddy crop could have started within a fortnight.

Satellite images

Orissa Remote Sensing Application Centre, which keeps track of cultivation areas, had taken satellite images just before the flood hit.

“The second forecast for Orissa kharif suggested that rice production would have been 15.56 quintal per hectare,” ORSAC CEO A. K Mohapatra said.

Farmers in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri and Jajpur would have maintained the rice yield of last year.

Remote sensing data and further analysis said rice yield in Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Kendrapara would have been 17.85 quintal per ha, 16.68 quintal per ha and 13.82 quintal per ha respectively.

Mr. Mohapatra claimed that there was very minute deviation between yield of rice forecast by ORSAC and actual production. Forecasting agricultural output using space, agro-meteorology and land based observations was done in the month of July and August.

Whatever may be the advice from scientific community and subsequent analysis, the State government is facing an uphill task to convince farmers of getting back to fields .