Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma’s concern to revive fallow lands for cultivation in the State has begun to show its result in Palamu where 5,132 hectares of fallow land have been identified and owners of the fallow lands are being motivated and prodded to cultivate pulses and oil seeds.
Deputy Commissioner Palamu Ameet Kumar said, “The State Government had written to us to identify all fallow land falling in the district o be used for growing daal especially and accordingly a massive work out was done here for the fallow land.”
Sources said around 2 lakh hectares of land in Jharkhand are fallow land and in the first serious identification of fallow land in Palamu more than 5,000 hectares have been identified. Sources said DC Palamu Ameet Kumar kept a tab on the identification of the fallow land.
Speaking to The Pioneer on Saturday Ameet Kumar said ‘ Our district has a fleet of Aryas a band of youths having agricultural back ground who have carried out the identification of the fallow land spread over in more than 1700 villages in this district’. The Aryas are the ones entrusted with the task of finding out the fallow land.
When asked if Aryas are paid for the labour of identification of fallow land DC said ‘ There is something in the offing for them. The Government is yet to announce the remuneration for the Aryas’.
DC expressing hope said with agricultural office back up here farmers better say raiyyats of the fallow land will turn towards growing daal and talhan on this land. He said the revival of the fallow lands will change the rural economy of the villages.
A fallow land is one where for the last five years or more no crop has been grown reminded Ameet Kumar. District agricultural officer Edmund Minz said if there is any instance of any crop growing on such a land has been found then in that situation the land ceases to be a fallow land.
Minz said fallow land is mostly upland and here rain water run off is sharp which forces farmers (raiyyats) to avoid any farming. Again on fallow land comes up huge man size shrubs and the soil texture goes dry which too force raiyyats to avoid farming.
However Minz said raiyyats are now doing deep ploughing of fallow land with the help of tractors.
Some big raiyyats left farming when the naxalites imposed ban on their farming. Naxals’ ban on farming in some cases of land belonging to upper caste raiyyats is evident in Palamu’s Paton block and Chhaterpur block. Police sources too confirm this embargo on farming by the naxalites.
Minz said Palamu has fallow land in all its 20 blocks. If Chainpur and Ramgarh block combine has 812 hectares of fallow land Pipra the highly lWE hit block has only 78 hectares of fallow land. Satbarwa block which is on NH 75 has only 88 hectares of fallow land just because of the high price of land here said sources.