Satna/Rewa, Madhya Pradesh
Farmers in Madhya Pradesh have barely recovered from the damage caused to their crops of til (sesame), urad and moong dal, by the rains last month when an infestation of false smut, locally known as kandua rog is threatening their paddy crops.
”I had planted five acres (about two hectares) of paddy that was growing well when it was infested. The paddy is slowly dying of kandua rog,” Virendra Singh from Chachai village in Rewa district, told Gaon Connection. Examining the rotting paddy, the 56-year-old planned to grow sugarcane on his land next year.
”I bought paddy grains at three hundred rupees a kilo to sow them. I need seven kilos of paddy seeds for each acre. I used pesticides costing me four thousand rupees an acre, yet that did not save my crop from the disease,” he lamented. “I thought I would get at least thirty to thirty two quintals of paddy, but I am left with nothing,” the farmer added.
An ongoing problem
According to 34-year-old farmer Tejban Namdeo from Lakhanpur village in Anuppur district, paddy infestation has been on for two to three years now. He too has decided to cultivate something else other than paddy because of this.
False smut has a devastating effect on paddy. The yield comes down, the weight of the grains is low and the quality is compromised, the farmers say.
The disease, which is common in areas with high humidity, can spread rapidly from one field to another.
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The rains in this region are usually expected in the months between June and September. However, the month of July remained relatively dry, and according to the farmers, sowing their paddy got delayed as a consequence.
“Ideally the sowing of paddy should have happened in July, but the land was dry because of no rains. Those who had means of irrigating their lands went ahead and did it. But many of us depend on the rains to soften the soil,” farmer Ram Kankan Rajak from Masnaha village in Satna district, told Gaon Connection.
“There is always some problem or the other with paddy and saving paddy grains is a challenge and we invariably have to spend money and buy paddy seeds from the markets,” the 38-year-old Rajak said. He added that the seeds he had bought were supposed to ripen in 90 days, but it was already 120 days and they had shown no signs of ripening.
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Rainfall ruin
GD Mishra, senior scientist at India Meteorological Department, Bhopal, confirmed that the rainfall in the month of July was less than what it ought to have been.
Madhya Pradesh saw excessive rainfall in some parts of the state and less than normal in some others. In the eastern part of the state it was 15 per cent lower than expected while in western Madhya Pradesh it was 15 per cent more. However overall, the state received 945.2 mm of rain instead of the expected 940.6 mm of rain.
The farmers are now worried about the sale of the infested paddy. “Will the paddy sell at all? And if it does, at what price,” wondered farmer Karan Upadhyay from Sitpura village in Satna district.
The kharif season in Satna district saw an increase in the amount of paddy sown. “The goal was to sow paddy in 249.60 lakh hectares in 2021. But 249.890 lakh hectares were cultivated,” RK Bagri, senior agricultural development officer, farmer welfare and agriculture department, told Gaon Connection.
Himanshu Shekhar, scientist from Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Majhgawan, Satna, who specialises in plant diseases told Gaon Connection, “A big reason for infestations such as false smut in the paddy is because of the use of hybrid seeds by the farmers because the yield is better, and of course the change in climate,” Shekhar added.
Meanwhile, the acreage of land under paddy cultivation is going up steadily in the district, said ND Gupta, deputy director agriculture, Anuppur.
“In the year 2019, there were 115 thousand hectares of land under paddy cultivation. The following year, in 2020, this went up to 116 thousand hectares of paddy. In 2021, it is 122 thousand hectares. The target for paddy cultivation for 2021 in the district has already been met,” Gupta said.
Read the story in Hindi.
