Farmers worried over government’s drought plan

SAMBALPUR: Even as the State Government had decided to declare panchayats which have received 50 per cent deficient rainfall for three consecutive weeks as dry spell-affected instead of waiting for crop cutting report, farmers in the region are apprehensive about the exercise.

Though the State Government agreed to take up this method to expedite the process of identifying the drought-hit areas, farmers were uncertain whether in reality it would help them. They felt that the entire process is ambiguous in nature as the State Government has not mentioned the months to be considered for generating rainfall figures.

“It is yet another example of the dilly-dally tactics adopted by the State Government. Officials at Bhubaneswar have the rainfall data and they can very well analyse it to identify Gram Panchayats where there has been a dry spell. There is no point in asking the District Collector to submit a report before the decision to declare the drought-hit areas could be taken. If the State Government is seriously interested, let it analyse the data available with them and provide immediate interim relief and ask for visual estimate or crop cutting reports, before taking a final decision on payment of compensation and relief,”  Paschim Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samanwaya Samiti (POKSSS) spokesperson Saroj said.

The spokesperson of farmers also demanded a review of the relief code with the rising input costs and change in minimum support price.

The State will have to conduct field visits and assessments to gather  rainfall data, which villagers believed would delay the process further. “By the time government identifies the areas with scanty rainfall, the crop-cutting report will come out. Thus, what’s the use of expediting the drought declaration process,” sources said.

Confusion prevails with the areas which may have received rainfall in the past three weeks, but have not received adequate rainfall in the past and are facing difficulties in saving their crops. Thus, there is a possibility, some villages would be not covered under the dry spell tag, say experts.

Sources revealed that the district agriculture officials are clueless about the rainfall data and about the three months to be considered while analysing the rainfall figure. The officials passed the onus on to the Revenue and Disaster Management department.

Meanwhile, Sambalpur District Collector Samarth Verma said farming activities in at least three blocks of Rengali, Jamankira and Rairakhol have been badly affected due to deficit rainfall. “Teams have been deployed to make a visual estimate and prepare a report to be submitted to the State Government soon. If the crop loss is more than 33 per cent,  the area would be considered as affected by dry spell,” Verma said.