Even though farmers in Maharashtra are thankful for the monsoon revival, many are still worried as their cultivation is still well behind schedule and they have been forced to bear the cost of re-sowing in many parts of the state.
Even though farmers in Maharashtra are thankful for the monsoon revival, many are still worried as their cultivation is still well behind schedule and they have been forced to bear the cost of re-sowing in many parts of the state.
According to rough estimates, nearly 1 lakh hectares of agricultural land has had to be re-sown and could potentially lead to loss of ultimate yield.
According to figures available on July 6, the government has claimed to have completed sowing on 28.25 lakh hectares of the total 132.34 lakh hectares of land under kharif cultivation. With satisfactory rains over the past few days, this number is expected to rise by 9% this week. However, the loss of key primary weeks is estimated to have caused a big loss to farmers.
“Jowar is expected to be hit the most this time. Sowing for the crop in the last two weeks of June is very important because jowar needs nearly 110 days to grow. With prolonged cultivation till the end of September, the yield goes down by 30%,” said a top Mantralaya officer on the condition of anonymity.
He added that the return of the monsoon this week has saved the soyabean crop, which is the second-largest crop in the country. However, he said that udeed, moong and tur dal crops will be affected to some extent.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit chief Sudhir Mungantiwar has alleged government inefficiency in giving fertilisers and seeds even after re-sowing was done on 1 lakh hectares of soil.
Agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh, however, claimed that the situation in the fields is perfectly fine. “Our agricultural universities have been advising farmers to delay sowing for jowar. Sowing by July 15 does not affect yields much, while early sowing can lead to diseases and pests in crops. Sowing is going on smoothly in all parts of the state and there are very few instances of re-sowing,” he stated.
Deshmukh added that there is no scarcity of fertilisers in the state and the government has released sufficient stock in the month of June. “This year, we released 8.5 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers in the month of June, nearly 2 lakh metric tonnes more than last year's release. There is a shortage of DAP fertiliser, but farmers are advised to substitute it with NPK, which is available in sufficient quantity," he added.
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