Drought-like situation likely to affect overall food production in state

Dimapur, July 5 (EMN): The farming community in Nagaland has been gravely affected by the occurrence of drought-like situation in several parts of the state.

An update on Monday informed that a field visit to assess the ground reality was undertaken by a team of officials of the Agriculture department to the farming areas of Dimapur, Medziphema and Niuland on July 2 and 3 respectively.

Majority of the farm lands were found unprepared for paddy transplantation on account of dry spell and the shortage of rainfall, causing huge concerns at this critical stage, it said.

“Furthermore, in those fields that have gone for direct seeded rice, the crop germination was uneven and poor in health which will directly affect the production and productivity leading to low yield,” it added.

It said that the department advised the farmers to prepare the main field for paddy transplanting in anticipation of monsoon rain or adopt direct seeding method in case of nursery failure due to seedlings overage.

Farmers were also encouraged to adopt SRI (System of Rice Intensification)  and line transplanting, which are suitable alternatives for scanty rainfall and other inadequate parameters for paddy cultivation where the raising of seedlings takes 8-12 days, it said.

It urged them to go for early rabi crops cultivation to compensate for kharif crop failure and crop recovery for below economic threshold.

The department directed all the DAO/SDAO to assess the agriculture situation in the state to formulate contingency plans, expedite weekly reports on crop status and the situation, and to monitor and evaluate the agro-climatic conditions to provide technical and input support to the farmers.

It said that the director of Agriculture stated Nagaland will face acute shortfall in food grain production if the monsoon rain fails to arrive as scheduled.