Rabi: Paddy loses out to groundnut

BHUBANESWAR: Following failure of kharif crop in several parts of the State, mostly in the coastal districts due to recurring floods, farmers of the groundnut-producing districts have taken to oilseed cultivation in a big way. The State Government has already supplied 95,000 quintals of groundnut seeds to the farmers against the targeted 1.25 lakh quintals for the current rabi season. The Agriculture Department is all set to meet further demand for the certified seeds. About 81,000 quintals were supplied the previous year. Although the Government had planned to procure a major portion of groundnut seeds from farmers of the State, sources in the Department said about 30,000 quintals were collected from within the State. The rest was procured from outside agencies. Farmers of Bargarh, Nuapada, Balangir, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Angul, Dhenkanal and Ganjam districts are the major producers of certified seeds. Certified groundnut seed is being supplied to the farmers at ` 26 a kg through the block-level selling centres. The seed varieties provided by the corporation include AK-12-24, TMV-2, TAG-24 and GPBD-4. Besides the certified groundnut seed, the State Seeds Corporation is also supplying paddy, wheat, gram, mustard, sunflower, biri, moong, til and maize seeds for the rabi season. Aware of low water-level in major reservoirs and the Government decision to store water for hydro power generation during the summer months, farmers are not very keen to take up paddy cultivation during rabi season. The Department has, however, supplied 22,000 quintals of paddy seeds against a target of 58,000 quintals.The corporation has already supplied 8,000 quintals of wheat seeds to the farmers against a target of 10,000 quintals while 1,900 quintals of moong and 2,000 quintals of biri (black gram) seeds have already been supplied, the sources said. Paddy seeds are being supplied at ` 1,100 a quintal to the farmers while the price of moong seeds is ` 4,500 a quintal. Prices of other certified seeds being supplied by the corporation include biri at ` 3,700 a quintal, mustard at ` 2,300, gram ` ` 2,200, til at ` 2,500 and hybrid sunflower at ` 8,000 a quintal.