Baliapal: Good news for groundnut farmers in Baliapal block of Balasore district. They will not face shortage of seeds this year as the agriculture department has decided to supply the required quantity of seeds through dealers, a step that will attract more farmers to groundnut cultivation.
Officials of the department said more quantity of seeds than the target of cultivation will be brought to the area to meet the demands of farmers.
The block agriculture office had ordered seeds for 600 hectares of land earlier, but the higher-ups intimated vide a letter that seeds for only 200 hectares will be supplied in the first phase. The officials realised that the quantity of seeds to be supplied in the first phase will not meet the requirement of the farmers.
The block agriculture officer intimated to the higher-ups that the short supply of seeds will create problems.
Then, the department assured that seeds for 400 hectares will be supplied while seeds for 200 hectares will be supplied to farmers free of cost.
It was made clear that if a farmer buys two bags of groundnut seeds, one bag will be given free of cost.
The agriculture department said seeds will this time easily meet the requirement of farmers. The department will prepare a list of groundnut farmers and the list will be handed over to the dealers.
Then, the farmers will take seeds from the dealers, the department officials said.
Over the last few years, more and more farmers have been cultivating groundnut in the river basin of Subarnarekha and the areas close the Bay of Bengal in Baliapal block.
The department said that as groundnut doesn’t need that much irrigation and fertilizer as in case of paddy farming, more farmers are interested to take up this cash crop.
A kg of seeds is sold for Rs 50/60, which is much less than that available in the market.
Some farmers exuded hope that if the department ensures quality seeds, they can earn good returns this year.
Block agriculture officer Biswanath Mandal also said green gram seeds were ordered for 1,000 hectares while mustard seeds were ordered for 100 hectares.
PNN
