Assam: Summer paddy damaged, govt’s procurement target likely to be affected

GUWAHATI: The first wave of Assam floods devastated high-yielding summer paddy, about to be harvested in vast parts of the state, leaving lakhs of farmers in a quandary.
The crop damage may hit the paddy procurement target of the government. Earlier, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the Food Corporation of India and other agencies have been instructed to procure 10 lakh MT of paddy during the 2021-22 crop year.
Among the farmers who bore the brunt of nature’s fury is Chitra Boro of Rajapara in lower Assam’s Kamrup district. He could not save anything as his five-bigha farm remained under water for almost seven days. Summer paddy or boro rice cultivation has given a major boost to rice production in the state in the last few decades. The farmers used to harvest before the monsoons wreaked havoc in the state in June. But the sudden pre-monsoon floods was a bolt from the blue for farmers like Boro. Agriculture experts are worried over climate change that has resulted in advanced floods. They believed that in the long run, farmers might give up multiple cropping.
“I used to get around 30 quintal of summer paddy. But from the same cropland, I can harvest only 20 quintals of Sali or winter paddy. Multiple cropping has been propagated by the agriculture department for more produce. However, such floods ahead of monsoon is an ominous sign. We may have to give up summer paddy cultivation, if such losses are incurred frequently,” Boro told TOI.
Farmers in Rajapara, and parts of Kamrup and Goalpara districts close to Meghalaya border, were already struggling with the menace of wild elephants. Now, the untimely floods have put the farmers at a loss.
Sultan Ali, another farmer in Jarpara village of Kamrup, shared the same destiny. Vast cropland, measuring 200 to 400 bighas have been inundated close to the Brahmaputra. Ali, too, could not harvest anything as the paddy he had sown in nine bighas was not ready to be reaped. “I was planning to reap my paddy in June,” he added.
Summer paddy is cultivated in about 4.08 lakh hectare in Assam, where the annual production is over 18.1 lakh MT. State agriculture department officials said the only ray of hope is the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. “We appeal to farmers to get crop insurance,” said Debajit Neog, a senior consultant with the agriculture department.