The paddy crop in the command area of the Sundar Irrigation Project, known as Jadamunda Dam located in Komna block of Nuapada district has been badly damaged due to pest attack and low quality seeds.
The farmers revealed that more than 80 hectares of paddy crop has been damaged in Jadamunda village alone.
“We have applied various types of pesticides to the affected crops but the pests seem to have resisted the poison and are spreading,” said the aggrieved farmers. About 40 farm households of Jadamunda will suffer the loss this year due to the pest attack.
Haldhar Majhi had cultivated paddy in 3 acres, spending about Rs 60,000 in total. “The seed was not of good quality, the supplier cheated us, most paddy will be grainless,” he said. He had cultivated 1,010 variety.
Purna Majhi, Jaganti Raut, Jagdish Pradhani, Nartan Raut and many others of this village have been cheated in seed. Jagdish had cultivated MC-13 variety on trial basis in one acre of land. “The supplier said that the yield of MC-13 would be 40 quintals per acre, but I am sure, I would not even get the seed,” said Jagdish.
Some farmers had experimented with 6444 Gold, Dhani and Silki varieties of paddy, but all of them failed. Tirmila Reddy, the seed supplier is a south Indian farmer, staying in Jadamunda since long. As per information of villagers, Tirmila and a few other farmers from Andhra had migrated to this area after the completion of the irrigation project. They purchased land here and have become permanent residents in different villages in the command area of Jadamunda dam.
Nuapada district has been severely affected by drought this year. There is hundred per cent crop loss in unirrigated lands. However, the situation in Jadamunda village reveals that, the crop condition in irrigated belt is even not good. Most irrigation projects in the district were not in a position to feed water to land due to delay in rainfall. As a consequence, agricultural operations started very late, which affected the crop growth.
“Crop loss in command area of Jadamunda dam will be equal to that of the non irrigated area. The district administration should take crop cutting report of the irrigated areas also to estimate the extent of loss,” said BJP Krushak Morcha president Sanjay Tiwari, who visited Jadamunda village on Saturday.