A forecast of less rain in most of the agriculturally important north Indian states had put a lot of farmers into a state of worry. And sure enough, a rain deficit of about 40% was recorded in Haryana and Punjab. Seeing this, agriculturists had estimated that the rice and wheat production in 2013 will be quite low. But to everyone’s surprise, Haryana has still managed to achieve the highest ever productivity of the ‘Kharif’ food-grains 2012-13. This is the highest rice production ever recorded (39.76 lakh tonnes) since the inception of the Haryana ? in 1966.
What’s astonishing is, that is has been achieved despite the state having received 36.8% less rainfall as against the normal rainfall from May to September, 2012.
A spokesman for the Haryana Agriculture Department said “in case of coarse rice, 23.54 lakh tonnes of production with a productivity of 40.03 quintals per hectare in an area of 5.88 lakh hectares has been achieved.” This therefore remained he highest, both in production and productivity since 1966-67. Similarly, the production of basmati rice was also achieved at 16.22 lakh tonnes with a productivity of 25.87 quintals per hectare in an area of 6.27 lakh hectares which was also the highest since 1966-67.
Scientist and Dr. NVK Chakravarty at Skymet said, “One must learn from each other’s experiences. These figures clearly state that the farmers paid detailed attention to the irrigation system to fight the less rain this season.” He added that the canal system in the state of Haryana is also well organized and properly maintained which has aided in achieving this feat. Great weather with optimum sunshine and less fog this winter has helped in high productivity.
Photo by Rajkumar1220.
