Farmers of Mayurbhanj on toes to save crops amid rainfall alert issued by IMD

BARIPADA: Farmers of Mayurbhanj district are facing an uphill task to shift harvested paddy from fields to safer places after the IMD predicted formation of a deep depression over Bay of Bengal.
As the sky remained cloudy throughout the day for the past two days, panicked farmers are on their toes to harvest their crops and shift it to safer places before the rains come. Schoolchildren, housewives and even the elderly of farming households have joined in to complete the exercise.

Sanu Singh, a Class V student of  Sindurgoura village under Shamakhunta block of Mayurbhanj district, has been helping his father Muna Singh to bring the harvested paddy from the fields. The kid can be seen carrying bundles of paddy crop on his head from his father’s farm field.Similarly, 57-year-old Gopinath Singh, his two sons and granddaughter of Poda Astia village in Banunshabila panchayat have been busy transferring the harvested paddy crop from his field to a safe place in a tractor all through the day.

Gopinath said he had cultivated paddy over 3.5 hectares (ha) of land. The crop on two ha was damaged by the unseasonal rains a couple of weeks back. With the prediction of more rains, Gopinath was worried if he would be able to shift the harvested paddy from the remaining one ha on time.

Jugendra Singh of Dad Dud village in the same panchayat said shifting of harvested paddy within such a short span of time is a difficult task. While he had cultivated paddy crop over two acres, unavailability of manpower and tractor to shift the harvested crop from the fields has left him worried.While many farmers in the region are facing a similar situation, heavy demand for tractors and other machineries for shifting the harvested paddy crops has added to their woes.

As per reports, farmers in the district had earlier been affected after standing crops were damaged due to pest attack and untimely rains. Recently, Revenue and Agriculture officials besides an NGO had submitted the crop loss report to the district administration. Mayurbhanj Deputy Director of Agriculture Damodar Sethi said the administration had already warned farmers of 26 blocks in the district to shift their harvested paddy to safer places through public announcement systems on Thursday.

He informed that paddy crops in 88 villages in 50 panchayats of 10 blocks were attacked by pest. Similarly, farmers of 1,805 villages in 258 panchayats of 17 blocks were affected by unseasonal rainfall, he said.