Advent of timely monsoon in State has given farmers reasons to cheer and they are expecting that this year they will get bumper yields. Almost all farmers are either preparing their farm for sowing seeds of Karif crops or started sowing seeds on time.
Agriculture experts and the farmers are also expecting a bumper crop this time after drought-like situations reported in the past two years.
Expressing happiness over timely monsoon, Mukhiya of Deori Panchayat under Nagri Block of Ranchi District Sunil Kachhap said that the farmers have already started preparation for their field since pre-monsoon which occurred just 15 to 20 days ago and now the timely monsoon gave ample opportunity to get bumper crops this year as the farmers almost completed their field preparation for paddy and other crops of the season. This is good news for the farming fraternity during the global pandemic COVID 19 which caused them much distress during the last three months of lockdown, he added.
Monsoon has entered Jharkhand from the south-eastern, north-eastern and central districts of Odisha. For the coming three to four days, there will be monsoon clouds over entire Jharkhand and the State will witness sufficient rain. According to Meteorologist and Director of Ranchi Meteorological Center, Dr SD Kotal, normal rainfall, which is 96 to 104 per cent, is expected in this rainy season in Jharkhand.
District Agricultural Officer AK Sinha said that the department already started seeds distribution on time so that the farmers could not get scarcity of seeds. With the advent of timely monsoon the duty of the department has increased to provide seeds to the farmers before sowing, he added.
According to the data provided by the State Agriculture Department, out of total 38 lakh hectares of arable land in Jharkhand, Kharif is cultivated in 28 lakh hectares. Of which, paddy crop alone is planted in 18 lakh hectares.
BAU’s Agricultural Meteorologist Dr A Wadood considers this monsoon and pre-monsoon conditions to be the best for agriculture. He said that this time due to early arrival of monsoon and pre-monsoon, the fields are already ready to sow seeds of crops.
“Now when the monsoon enters the State, the farmers will not have to wait for the cultivation process. If they will sow the seeds on time, the yield will also increase,” said Wadood.
A farmer from Kanke, Ranchi, Manoj Kumar Prajapati said that this time he is expecting that the monsoon will provide them enough water to get a good crop, because the monsoon came at its scheduled time and pre monsoon rain also gave them an opportunity to prepare their field on time.