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Journalism of Courage
The early onset of monsoon and heavy downpour have brought good news for West Bengal farmers, especially for cultivators of paddy and jute. Normally, monsoon hits the state by June 8. With a week before schedule, the heavy rainfall and flash foods in certain pockets acted as “natural irrigation”, solving the problem for cultivators in many areas of rural Bengal.
The farmers in West Bengal are preparing the land for the “aman” (monsoon paddy). The sowing of aman paddy begins on July 15 each year, covering a total area of 43 lakh hectares in the state. State agriculture experts say this year, too, the sowing will take place on schedule and the monsoon rainfall will only help.
“Generally, the farmers have to look out for groundwater sources during this phase. The early monsoon and the depression-driven rains have solved this problem,” said Subhendu Chatterjee, Director of the state agriculture department.
The heavy rainfall has been welcomed by the jute cultivators, too. However, it will adversely affect a small section of farmers cultivating sesame seeds (til). “The majority of sesame cultivators have already harvested the crops but there is still a small section of farmers who have not harvested their crops yet and the rain will play spoilsport for them,” said Chatterjee.
Officials in the agriculture department say the heavy rainfall has brought relief to the farmers in the drought-prone districts like Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and West Midnapore.
Last year, the aman paddy production in the state was to the tune of 96,49,900 tonnes while the aus paddy cultivation notched 5,75,300 tonnes.
Experts in agriculture department are hopeful that the aman crop production will only go higher after the heavy rainfall. “I have asked the district authorities for a detailed report to give an estimate of the production and whether it was likely to increase after the rains,” said Agriculture Minister Naren De.
