While most parts of Chhattisgarh are grappling with heavy rain and floods in the ongoing monsoon season, the Surguja district of the State still has regions which have either received scanty rainfall or none so far.
Now, fearing a drought-like situation due to scanty or no rainfall, the Surguja district administration has intensified measures to deal with the situation across the district.On the direction of Surguja District Collector Ritu Sen, the Agriculture department has chalked out its action plan, a senior official of the department informed.He said that monsoon related crop insurance scheme has already been implemented to benefit the farmers in case they suffer loss, he said.
While farmers have deposited fifty per cent of the premium, the remaining fifty per cent is being provided by the State Government as an assistance to them.The farmer gets compensation under the scheme on the basis of the damage suffered by the crops due to inadequate or excess rainfall. The official said that the government has been providing crop related information by setting up a district-level Control Room . The farmers are also getting the necessary information at the Agricultural Science Centre, he said.
Farmers are being advised on the current situation and the problems they are likely to face in the future. They are also being advised on alternative crops, the official stated.The Agriculture Department has advised farmers to go for short duration paddy crop if there is a delay in the onset of monsoon in their region.They have been told to cultivate short duration Paddy , Maize, Tur, Urad, Moong and Soybean crops.
Similarly, they can also go for Indira Sona variety Paddy, Purnima, Samleswari, Danteshwri, Narendra Dhan- 97 I. R. 64 ,IR 36, MTU 1010, Satabdi, Maize variety - J.M.216, Kiran, Shaktiman or Mahaikanchan. Similarly, in the pulses variety, the farmers can include type-21, Upas-120, Pragati, Sampada, Asha, he advised. The Control Room can be reached by farmers at telephone number: 07774 222722, he said.