Scanty rains hit aman growth

Statesman News Service

SILIGURI/MALDA, 5 AUG: An inconsistent monsoon this year has affected the cultivation of aman paddy in north Bengal. Transplantation of the paddy is going slow after the July rainfall in Malda district. According to the agriculture development officer (technical) Mr Samarendra Nath Das in Malda, only 46 per cent of the targeted sowing has been possible due to scarcity of rain in the district. “Transplantation so far has been possible barely in 69,000 hectares out of a targetted 1.5 lakh hectares,” he said. Transplantation has been more successful in the low-lying areas.

The Teari region in Darjeeling district is experiencing a 40 per cent rain deficiency this year, affecting the sowing of ‘aman’ paddy. “We had sowed soon after monsoon arrived but, it seems, the saplings would parch in the fields for want of rain,” lamented Mr Pradeep Barman, a farmer at Hatighisha village near Naxalbari in Siliguri sub-division.

In the absence of irrigation facility, most of the peasants in the Terai, depend on rainwater for cultivation and hence, they are worried with the gloomy prospect of ‘aman’ crop this year.

As per the data offered by the Weather Service Station at North Bengal University, the Terai region witnessed 650 mm rain in July, which is 450 mm less than normal.

Regular showers are however likely for

the month of August if the first four days’ rains were an indication. The August rainfall here usually registers around the 700 mm mark.

“It is unlikely that the remaining days of the monsoon in its scattered pattern would be able to compensate the rain deficiency experienced in June and July,” said Dr Subir Sarkar, convener of the NBU's Weather Service Station. “Besides the impact of global warming, the immediate reason for this is the Aila storm that hit West Bengal in May,” he added.

In Malda, Mr Das said: “The farmers are trying to complete transplantation before 15 August, which is treated as the cut-off date for aman paddy sowing. Continued transplantation after 15 August would reduce the production per hectare,” he warned.