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The absence of pre-monsoon rains has delayed the paddy sowing in this Kharif season in Odisha, according to local farmers.
The sowing of the paddy generally starts in the eastern state from the last week of May and continues till the second week of June. The paddy sowing area in the state is around 30 per cent of the total 3.5 million hectares of paddy areas in the state.
“We can’t sow the paddy seeds due to lack of pre-monsoon rain this year,” said Sameer Pradhan, a farmer in Ganjam district’s Sheragada block. Moreover, the temperature of the area was hovering around 35-38 degrees Celsius, he said.
“We are very worried about the delay in the break of the monsoon, as predicted by weather scientists,” said Ranjan Rout, a farmer in Chandabali in Bhadrak district
The monsoon generally hits the state on June 10-13, around 10-11 days after it hits Kerala. The India Meteorological Department announced that the much-awaited southwest monsoon arrived in Kerala on June 8, 2023.
The southwest monsoon arrived in the southern state on May 29 in 2022, June 3 in 2021, June 1, 2020, June 8 in 2019 and May 29 in 2018, sources said.
The southwest monsoon is expected to hit Odisha’s southern part between June 17 and 20, if the severe cyclonic storm Bipojoy over the Arabian sea continues its present form, said Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director, Center for Environment and Climate, SOA deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar.
The cyclone has caused the delay in the onset of monsoon in Kerala, he said. The wind pattern around the cyclone could cause development of cloud and rain along the west coast of India, said Sahu.
In 2022, the southwest monsoon had hit Odisha on June 16 in the southern districts and covered the entire state by June 20.
Before the onset of the monsoon, the state experienced the pre-monsoon showers. This rainfall helped the farmers for first ploughing and sowing of the paddy, said Dillip Kumar Khuntia, a retired agriculture officer.
This year, thunderstorms lashed isolated pockets of the eastern state in the last week of May and first week of June. But they did not help farmers start the agriculture operation, he said.
Since the delay in sowing of the paddy due to the absence of the pre-monsoon rains, we suggested the farmers to sow the medium duration paddy seeds, instead of long-duration seeds, said Amaresh Khuntia, professor of agronomy, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar.
He said the perspective of the Kharif crop this year in the state was difficult to predict at present. The Kharif activities would continue till September first week. We have to wait to observe the monsoon pattern and weather condition of the state. IMD however predicted the country is expected to get normal rainfall during the monsoon season despite the evolving El Nino condition.
Odisha has produced a record quantity (13.606 million tonnes) of food-grains in 2022-23 — highest ever annual production for the state, official sources said. In the year 2020-21, 13.038 million tonnes of food grains were produced in the state
In 2019-20 and 2016-17, the state produced 11.688 million tonnes and 11.682 million tonnes of food grains respectively, sources said.