PATNA: In view of scanty rainfall, the state agriculture department has advised farmers not to go for sowing long duration rice varieties and instead sow shorter duration paddy crop varieties harvested before onset of winter.
This is because the monsoon in full bloom is yet to arrive. Delay in transplantation of longer duration rice varieties, which take 140-150 days time for harvesting, would be harvested by the time the mercury dips by November end. Due to this, the temperature declines by the end of November and in December, causing grainlessness in the paddy crop, said deputy director, agriculture department, designated as agriculture specialist Anil Kumar Jha.
Another advice to the farmers is to save the paddy seedlings by providing them moisture at all the nurseries in the farmlands. The third advice to the farmers is to go for alternative cropping in case the rains do not occur sufficiently by July 31. In the event of a drought, the farmers have been advised to grow maize and pulses that need less water to grow and yield good amount of grains.
Timely cropping of paddy seedlings and their proper care is important for good harvest, said an agriculture scientist. Rain, though deficient, occurred in many north Bihar districts resulting in sowing of paddy seedlings on 1.75 lakh hectares of land as against a normal sowing of paddy seedlings on six lakh hectares in the entire state by July 8 this year, Jha said, adding that the target for paddy sowing in kharif season this year is 35.5 lakh hectares.
He said that if rain occurs in the next week, the agriculture recovery operation for paddy crops would be possible in the state. If there is no rain till the next week, the alternative cropping pattern would have to be given a serious thought by the farmers, he added.
For the present, the state government is ready to provide certain varieties of paddy seeds (shorter duration) for growing seedlings for paddy cropping till July 31.