Ganjam drought, crop damage goes up

Berhampur: Following the demand from all the quarters to declare Ganjam district drought-hit, Agriculture department with the help of Statistics department has started crop loss assessment from October. Till Tuesday, 91,955 hectares of paddy got damaged due to scanty rainfall and failure of LI points at the time of need in the district during the current year. The crop loss assessment is going on.

According to the Agriculture department, there is no water in the Rushikulya for irrigation purpose. Dhanei, Ghodahada and Baghua dams have some water but not sufficient. The water is not coming in the canals. It is the critical stage to supply water to the farming lands. Most of the Lift Irrigation (LI) points are not working properly for supplying of water.

For the reconstruction of the LI points, Rs 15 crore has been sanctioned. Rs 23 crore 95 lakh is estimated for the repairing of 795 LI points in the district. Out of that 31 LI points will be revived by Panipanchayat.    2615 pump sets were provided to the farmers of 22 blocks against the proposed 5000.

To discuss on the drought situation in the district, a meeting was organized in DRDA hall at Chatrapur. During the discussion it was revealed that 1740 revenue villages out of 3216 revenue villages of the total 22 blocks of the district were witnessed completely crop loss due to scanty rainfall. Till Tuesday, 91,955 hectares of paddy field were affected by drought out of 2 lakh 10 thousand 450 hectares of paddy field. In the absence of the Collector Dr Krishan Kumar, Additional District Magistrate Nirmal Chandra Mishra directed to the concerned department officials to start the work in war-footing.

In the meeting, the officials told that, there is acute problem of water in the district; even there is no water in canals. To avoid drought situation in the coming year, Check dam and defunct irrigation points should be constructed. He directed to the BDO’s of respective blocks to give report within four days for the construction of Check dams. The next review meeting of the administration on drought situation in the district will sit after five days.  

Due to scanty and erratic rainfall in the district during the time of plantation of the paddy in the month of August this year, 1065 villages of 15 different blocks were declared drought-hit. District administration has already sent a letter to the State Government on October 29 to declare Ganjam district drought-hit.

“According to relief code, after the crop-cutting, the real crop loss estimation will come out. If the yield of the year remain less than 50 percent, then the district will be declared drought-hit”, said District Deputy Director of Agriculture Aparty Sethi to The Pioneer on Wednesday.