Farmers in different parts of Nuapada district who cultivated mung (green gram) in current Rabi season have complained that seed distributed by the Agriculture Department was not of good quality resulting in a very poor rate of germination.
Taruni Meher of Gandabaheli village under Sinapali block had sown 20 kg of seed in 2.5 acres of land, but only about 10 per cent of the seed germinated. “We got Rs40,000 from last year’s mung crop yield, but this year we did not reap a single seed,” rued Taruni.
Banamali Nial, another farmer of the village, had sown about 50 kg seed in six acres of land on sharecropping basis. He usually gets 15 quintals mung in his share from the land owners. “I had earned Rs80,000 last year by selling my share but, 80 per cent of the seed did not germinate this year,” he said. The fields this year look barren.
The plants which grew with moisture stress are looking pale due to lack of moisture and pest attack, Banamali added.
“We applied pesticides to the plants as prescribed by the District Agriculture Officer (DAO) who visited our field 20 days back but that did not work,” said the farmers of Butupali. In Sinapali block the Agriculture Department had distributed 3,750 kits to farmers, but all of them have faced substantial loss. In Khariar block, a total of 4,630 farmers had been given seed but none of them sowed the seed as it was late. The situation in all other blocks is also the same.
The Agriculture Department distributed 19,375 kits (77,500 kg) during the current Rabi for cultivation in 9,700 acres of land in Nuapada district. Each farmer was provided a kit of 4 kg along with different micro nutrients free of cost. “The land was totally dry when we received the seed in the last week of February,” informed the farmers.
More than 3,000 MT of mung would have been produced, had the seed been distributed in time, they said.
The Government in the aftermath of drought had boasted that the farmers had been provided support in time for restoring their agriculture operations in Rabi season. Seed of mustard, mung and groundnut were provided but it was too late. “Most people have consumed the seed as the fields were totally dry when the seed arrived to the district in the first week of February,” said the officials of the Agriculture Department.
“One of the reasons for less germination was moisture stress,” they said. After a big loss in Kharif, the failure of Rabi has put the farmers of the district in double jeopardy.