Report on crop loss yet to be submitted

MALDA, May 13: Though the Malda district magistrate, Mr Sridhar Ghosh, had asked the principal agriculture officer (PAO) to submit a detailed report on the estimated loss of crops due to the recent drought and storms in the region, the report is yet to prepared.

The principal agriculture officer in Malda, Mr Ranjit Kumar Das, said: “The Malda sub-divisional officer (agriculture) had been asked to prepare a detailed report and estimate the loss in agriculture due to the recent natural calamities. He is currently working over the report. It would take time to prepare it, after the field study is completed.” “We had faced a drought due to lack of rain that had damaged the Boro crop in the Barind belt in Malda. But in Chanchal sub-division, in the northern part of Malda, there has been no such adverse reports. The storm which lashed Malda a few days ago did not affect the agricultural sector. We had submitted a preliminary report to this effect to the district magistrate,” Mr Das said. However, the district horticulture department had estimated a loss of more than Rs 14 crore in mango cultivation due to the storm in the first week of May, and mango cultivation had been further effected by the heavy rains and storm last night. “The horticulture department will soon be able to report the estimated loss in mango cultivation, due to the storms in this district,” he added. According to the agriculture department, the district received 2.6 mm rainfall on 12 May and an average of 30.6 mm rainfall on 13 May. The English Bazaar block has received 25.3 mm rainfall since last night. The temperature has fallen from 41 degrees C to 32 degrees C today. According to the PAO, Mr Das, the district received an average of 140 mm rainfall from January to May, but this year the district had not received adequate rain. At present, the shortfall of rain is more than 90 mm. “We have received applications from the farmers, where their Boro paddy cultivation had been affected due to lack of rain and proper irrigation. We need to verify the ‘complaints’ on the spot,” Mr Das argued. n SNS