The vulnerable condition of people depending on agriculture, like farmers, farm labourers and sharecroppers in rural areas in the Covid-19 pandemic has gone from bad to worse with the occurrence of heavy floods.
The mud houses have been washed away and farm lands are under water. The floods have created largescale damage and devastation to standing crops and other assets of the poor people mostly in the Mahanadi, Baitarani, Brahamani and Subarnarekhariver basins. In these areas the farmers had just finished the paddy planting work for this year due to late monsoon. It will be extremely difficult for them to do it again. The situation will pave the way for distress migration with least doubt.
As it is reported, many people died because of flood related damages and more than 10,000 houses collapsed and about 3 lakh cattle population and 3 lakh hectares of cultivable land in more than 3,000 villages of 112 blocks of the worst affected districts of Puri, Khordha, Cuttack, Jajpur ,Kendrapada , Jagatsingpur , Baleswar and Bhadrak etc. in the State. The waterlogging has damaged public connectivity in many places as well as public utility infrastructure caused inconvenience to public. But the Government mechanism has not shown any promptness in its intervention.
The people of Odisha has been very frequently facing natural disaster such as flood and cyclone which has been impacting the overall development of the State.
The 2011 census says the direct agricultural dependent people in the State are 41 lakh farmers and 68 lakh agricultural workers. Paddy being the principal crop of the State covers about 80 per cent of the crop areas. It is disappointing to note that the State Government has very limited involvement in building long-term solutions to minimize the damage due to natural calamities. The role of the State has been reduced to as a charity organisation in the absence of plan for sustainable economic growth. It has been very well exhibited from Government ’s action and it is witnessed that for long long years, politicians in the State have only been focusing on charity and relief. This may be required for a certain period but that should not be the approach of the Government to address the issues of disaster in a State such as Odisha which has been prone to a number of frequent natural distress. The much hyped agriculture development schemes such as KALIA and BALIA have not helped the farmers in distress in solving their structural issues of irrigation, debt and distress sale.
With abundant water resources of both surface and ground, water management system of the State has not improved by use of modern technical knowhow in planning and management. The canal system has not improved and there is continued dependency over rain water for the principal crop. The State wise percentage of irrigated area under principal crop shows Odisha has only 28 per cent of the area covered which is below the national average and very less than States such as Punjab and Hariyana which have achieved 98 per cent and 86 per cent irrigation coverage respectively. What the State Government has been doing in the name irrigation development needs to be reviewed by experts to know the impacts of various projects.
During the ongoing flood, it has been reported that irrigation projects are sanctioned with political consideration and depend on influence of the leaders of ruling parties. The huge potential of both ground water and surface water resources has not been effectively managed for drinking ,domestic ,irrigation and industrial use due to lack of holistic planning. Odisha has extensive network of rivers and streams where canal and lift irrigation can be very much effective along with taping of ground water but the river basins of Mahanadi, Brahamani, Baitarani, Subernarekha, Rushikulya etc. have not been developed with long term plan and adequate priority investment which can be useful for flood control and irrigation for agriculture throughout the year. So also the distribution network of the command area of different dams has not been developed with proper networking. The Central and State schemes such as PMKSY and BKVY and project such as Mahanadi basin development plan and many other water conservation and irrigation schemes must be used properly. Irrigation potential not only increases production but also generates productive employment in many ways. The Government must prepare long term plan of flood control and irrigation and involve agencies and organisations in the mission for water management, especially for sustainable irrigation development to increase production and reduce the distress of agriculture dependent people of the State in coming days.
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