M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 24: Vegetable growers in Jharkhand are cross fingered over the fate of their produce in the fields.
The first three weeks of January have been crisscrossed by rains, dense fog, clouds in day and cloudy nights and hailstones.
This inclemency of nature has tripled the worries of the vegetable growers across the state as decay and destruction of vegetables is bound to happen ruining the financial prospects of the vegetable growers if not taken care of well in time.
Sources said that no district in Jharkhand has conducted a survey with regard to the status of the Didi Bari Yojana where veggies are in terrible conditions all because of the bad weather.
Lagatar English spoke to one of the scientists of the horticulture department of the Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi Dr Abdul Majid Ansari, to know how marginal or small vegetable growers can save their vegetables from the vagaries of nature and help protect their little fortune as well.
Dr Ansari agreed nature plays good and bad both with the vegetables.
“These rains and their moisture can be tapped for summer season vegetables like louki, jhingi, nenuha, ole, arbi, kheera, kakri, boudi, bhindi, gandhari saag, tarbuz etc. with smart management of it from now onwards,” he said.
“Winter rains, cloud, dense fog damage potato and tomato cultivation like anything. These two are most susceptible to the variation in temperature and get lost much sooner,” he added.
He suggested use of ashes to protect onion and garlic which fetch good prices and are too essential for the meals.
Vegetable growers have been advised to raise smoke around their fields of the vegetables if the growers apprehend nights to be cloudy or rainy or hailstones to strike.
Sources said a grower or a farmer needs to be a good weather watcher also and state radio stations can play a major role in it. They must not allow fallen leaves and twigs in the vegetable fields and these may be removed.
Reminded that water logging in the vegetables’ fields is a common major problem to which this horticulture scientist said under no circumstances water logging should be allowed and a vegetable grower must drain out such water from his field.
Dr Ansari then suggested intelligent use of insecticide and spray for the healthy growth of the vegetables. He asked for use of compost manure.
