M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, July 13: Farmers in villages of the Palamu district are worried as their paddy seedlings are withering due to lack of rain. The gap between seedling and transplantation, which is 21 days, is widening.
Oriya is one such village under the Nilamber Pitamberpur block (previously called Lesliganj). This village is seen as the hub of agro activities right from the veggies to the paddy. Farming is a matter of prestige among the families here.
A senior agriculture scientist of the Chiyanki-based zonal research centre of the Birsa Agricultural University in Daltonganj Pramod Kumar said, “We have the report of paddy seedlings’ withering at many places in Palamu. It will increase if the present trend of no rain prevails here.”
The agri-scientist said the withering of paddy seedlings is a bad sign. It portends ominous signs for Agri production and affects tillering of the paddy.
An official working in the Palamu district agriculture office Daltonganj, who operates data of the rainfalls etc, said in confidentiality that there is only 40.2 mm of rainfall in the first week of July in Palamu.
The month of June has been the scantiest of rainfall in Palamu with just 36.1 mm of rainfall. In normal monsoons, Palamu used to have 150 mm to 152 mm of rainfall in June every year but this time it has to remain contented with just 36.1 mm. This deficit of rain is enormous.
Not only the paddy seedlings are withering but there is a wider effect of no rain on the fields. Palamu’s staple diet maize, which wards off the hunger for nearly half of the year, is also struggling for want of the rains. Maize keeps the poor family’s kitchen alive.
It is right now 22.48 percent in Palamu and if rains continue to elude Palamu then the prospect of maize called bhutta in rural parlance will be in serious trouble.
Agriculture scientist Pramod Kumar said Palamu can’t afford to be a loser of paddy and maize both as then it will have a crucial impact on the poor who will have to struggle hard for food then.
Palamu is a rain shadow district and here surface water management is not what it should have been as here surface water runoff is quite faster. ‘Dobha’ built in the tenure of the then Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das is now a dead asset.
In view of, the scarcity of rains, children here have begun to chant ‘Allah Megh de Pani de’ (God bring clouds and rains). However, the cloud hangs but does not fall into the rain.
When the deficiency of rain persists, there is a tradition of holding the marriage ceremony of frogs as there is a popular belief it propitiates rain gods and brings rain. But these days, one does not hear the croaking of the frogs in Palamu. It is for just the notional rain.
Palamu has the feature of changing the pattern of rain every three years. A longer dry spell outnumbers the days of the rains here. Rains are a big employer of unskilled labourers and if it is scarce then there sets in huge migration from here to those parts of the country where there is rain and agro activities are on.
