Bihar News: Even after the arrival of monsoon in Bihar a day before the scheduled time, it has not rained as expected this year. Therefore, now drought is going to knock on the doors of Bihar. During this monsoon season, there has been 48 per cent less rainfall than normal. Barring two districts, Buxar and Kishanganj (there too the rainfall is 8 to 15 per cent less than normal), the rest of the districts have received much less rainfall so far. At the same time, preparations for alternative farming are going on.
Very little rain was recorded, affecting agriculture
60 to 83 percent less rainfall has been recorded in 10 districts of the state. Apart from this, there are 20 districts where less rainfall has been received between 40 to 60 mm. The rest of the districts have recorded less than 21 to 40 percent rainfall. Even after the trough line has passed over Bihar for the last 36 hours, the clouds are passing without rain. Here, paddy cultivation has been affected due to less rains in the state. So far only 49 percent paddy has been planted. Till now there should have been 442.3 mm of rain, in which only 242.2 mm of rain has been received. On 28 and 29 July, there was almost no rain. It did not rain till 30th evening. For this reason, to deal with the situation of drought in the state, the initiative of Agriculture Department has started on alternative farming.
District Agriculture Officers were alerted
All the District Agriculture Officers of the state have been alerted about this. Instructions have been given to lay emphasis on the cultivation of 17 types of alternative crops. Already the seeds of the crops coming under the alternate crop have been stocked. The availability of fertilizers has been investigated. At the same time, Rs 50 crore has been reserved for this under the contingency crop scheme. The government is giving diesel subsidy.
Rain in Bihar…
Bihar normally receives 494.4 mm of rain till 30 July. So far only 254.8 mm of rain has been received during this period. Sitamarhi received 83% less rainfall than normal, Sheohar 75%, East Champaran 70%, Sarhsa 68%, Begusarai 67%, Samastipur and Saran 66%, Muzaffarpur 65%, Nalanda 61% and Gopalganj 60% less rainfall. has been registered. According to experts, these districts may come under the grip of severe drought. The condition of agriculture here is dependent only on ground water.
These alternative crops will be cultivated.
Cultivation of short term paddy, hybrid maize, arhar, urad, rapeseed, mustard, peas, okra, radish, kulthi, madua, sawa, kodo, jowar, berseem will be done alternatively. The seeds of these crops will be given to the farmers under the accidental crop scheme. For this, an amount of Rs 50 crore has already been kept safe.
41 thousand 264 quintal seeded stock
Till August 15, paddy is planted in many districts of Bihar. For this reason, the Agriculture Department is waiting for rain till 15th August. After this, the seeds of the crops coming under alternative farming will be started to be distributed among the farmers. For this, 41 thousand 264 quintal seeds have been procured by the Agriculture Department. More seeds have been demanded from the Central Government.
Only 62% urea available of total requirement
Paddy cultivation has been greatly affected in the state. Because of this, there is not much need of fertilizers now. But, as soon as alternative farming starts. The demand for fertilizers will increase. At present only 62% of the total requirement of urea is available in the state. In this, 60% of the total requirement of DAP, 59% of the total requirement of NPK and 19% of the total requirement of MOP is available.
Farmers are selling wheat in negligible packs
Due to the low minimum support price, the farmers of the state are selling wheat in packs in very small quantities. In the last four years, farmers have sold only 593.319 metric tonnes of wheat in packs, in a very small quantity this year. In the year 2020-21, 3710.267 metric tonnes, 455518.463 in the year 2021-22, 3066.615 metric tonnes of wheat in the year 2022-23 were sold by the farmers in packs. There are more than eight thousand packs in the state. In this, farmers sold paddy in half the packs only. Farmers sold wheat in 4391 packs in the year 2020-21, 5645 in the year 2021-22, 4384 in the year 2022-23 and 4169 in the year 2023-24. Due to getting higher price in the market than the support price, farmers are turning towards the market.
This year in four years the least wheat was sold in packs
In four years, this year farmers have sold the least amount of wheat in packs. Farmers have not sold wheat in a single pack in Vaishali. 1 metric ton in Araria, 2.50 in Aurangabad, 1 in Darbhanga, 1 in Katihar, .10 in Khagaria, 1 in Kishanganj, .50 in Madhepura, .50 in Purnia, 1.50 in Samastipur, .70 metric tonnes of wheat in Banka Sold in packs. The farmers of Samastipur have sold maximum 190 metric tonnes of wheat in packs.