Weather vagaries hit farming activities hard

CORRESPONDENT
MIRZA, May 24 – The rise of atmospheric temperature has hit the farming community hard affecting the much-needed tilling for sali cultivation.

“We have to stop ploughing due to the intense heat in the morning hours”, a group of farmers said, adding that 12-hr ploughing at a stretch under the sun has become a difficult task.

Dependent on rainfall, the cultivators while interacting with this correspondent, expressed the apprehension of poor productivity in the wake of the vagaries of weather.

Jagalia Pathar, a huge farming track currently under ploughing, has not received the required showers for regular tilling.

Irregular rainfall has caused difficulties in tilling as the land has become too hard to plough, farmer Biren Kalita, an Arts graduate, pointed out. Kalita rued that the growing decline of paddy output has adversely affected the farmer’s vocation.

The farmers, used to reaping rich harvests 10 years ago, met the costs of daily necessities by selling the extra output.

The rising costs of agricultural inputs coupled with the vagaries of weather is an indication of hard days to follow, the farmers maintained.

Notably, for the production of 1 kg of rice, the requirement of water is estimated at 5,000 litres followed by 1,368 litres for an equal quantum of wheat.

The National Commission of Agriculture, in its report, has held rainfall fluctuations accountable for the output variability.

Since the agricultural sector, the backbone of the country’s economy, is the largest consumer of water, the matter of growing water needs should be taken seriously. A few farmers, taking the decline of productivity into account, are in favour of the balanced use of fertilisers. “The quality of farming land has suffered due to the large-scale application of fertilisers,” another graduate farmer Chandra Konwar said. He stressed the need of keeping the soil quality intact for the well-being of the farming community.

The Jagalia river flowing through Jagalia Pathar, the virtual lifeline of nearly 20,000 farmers, has become shallow. The river, once rich in fish stock, needs dredging.

The woes of the cultivators of some 50 villages like Bagan, Loharghat, Borduar, Na-Kotha, Goalhati, Khamar, Maravitha, Dighalkuchi also need immediate redress.

The farmers have faced water crisis with the water level of Batha river going down.

The water needed for seed planting for sali crops was available from the Batha river. The indiscriminate sand quarrying has affected the supply of the river water.

After harrowing the ploughed track, the soil has turned sticky, a condition not suitable for transplanting the paddy seedlings, the farmers of Na-Kotha said.

Immediate redress of the woes of farmers is the need of the hour before the situation takes a turn for the worse. ASSAM TRIBUNE