The State Government is getting its act together ahead of the spell of El Nino weather pattern that is likely to result in deficient rainfall in the country and solicited inter-departmental cooperation to mitigate the damage due to the ominous forecast especially for Khraif crops.
The department on Wednesday held a meeting with Development Commissioner and representatives of other departments seeking joint efforts to save Jharkhand from the adverse effects of El Nino.
“It is premature to say anything as we do not know when the monsoon will exactly arrive in Jharkhand. Rainfall has never been an issue rather distribution of rainfall is. Yet, we are preparing ourselves and have asked other departments to inform us in what way they can help us,” said Director Agriculture, Jatashankar Chaudhary.
The department on Wednesday sought proposals from various departments and plans to strengthen the agriculture infrastructure and reduce the impact of less rainfall on Kharif crops. The department is likely to sit with other stakeholders once again after a fortnight. The Indian Meteorological Department on Tuesday revised the rainfall at 88 per cent due to the phenomenon however for Northeast India a rainfall of 90 per cent (with an error margin of +/- 8 per cent) has been predicted by the met department.
“We will know the exact situation in July nonetheless we have asked irrigation department to apprise us about the water level in reservoirs and also how they will ensure uninterrupted irrigation. Moreover, we have sought reports from electricity department to know what they will do to supply continuous electricity,” maintained Chaudhary.
The direct measures taken by the department of Agriculture includes procuring stress tolerant variety of seeds of Kharif crops, distribution of Kishan Credit Cards and seeking institutional support in distribution in that direction and making plans for distribution of seeds procured.