less water consuming crop cultivation emphasized
With an aberrant monsoon being predicted, the State Government on Wednesday asked all district Collectors to chalk out contingency plans to provide agronomic support to farmers so that they get a good paddy harvest in the ensuing Kharif season.
In his official missive, Agriculture Secretary Rajesh Verma has alerted the Collectors about the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predication that about 95 per cent plus minus five per cent long Period Average (lPA) rainfall would occur during the ensuing monsoon.
He further informed that the IMD would issue an update forecast in June 2014 with details of the temporal (monthly) and regional distribution of monsoon rainfall and, accordingly, the State Government would make a detailed plan for Kharif-2014.
Verma asked the Collectors to prepare and fine tune contingency plans for the district in consultation with the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK).
In the missive, he also wanted that the Collectors ensure availability of seeds and other inputs for implementing the contingency plan and construction of water harvesting structures under MGNREGA, promotion of agronomic practices for moisture conservation, promotion of less water consuming crops and completion of sowing and transplanting of paddy by mid of August.
The Agriculture Secretary emphasised on line sowing of paddy, inter-cropping of cereals, pulses and oilseeds, basal application of phosphatic and Potassic fertilizer, rationalisation of irrigation water discharge and use and restoring irrigation infrastructure and interrupted supply of power to bore wells and repairing of lift irrigation points.