Sanjeev Kumar Patro

Bhubaneswar: When the Odisha government is going gaga over the farmers and farming in Odisha post the KALIA scheme, a reality check by the Economic-Survey 2019-20 portrays in real the pangs felt by state farmers.

The Survey in no uncertain terms has virtually sounded a note of caution that farmers are quitting the farming profession in a big way.

As per the Economic Survey 2019-20, the net area sown in the State has shown a decline for the second consecutive year to touch 53.32 lakh hectares in 2018-19. In contrast, the fallow land (a land where crops are grown earlier but now no crops are being sown) has increased to 10.77 lakh hectares in 2018-19.

The reason: The Economic Survey says, "While the fluctuating trend in net sown area is linked with natural calamities, other factors like lack of irrigation, rainfall, increased use of land in non-farming purposes and farmers' inability to take up sowing and constraints in marketing or selling agri-produces are responsible for rising fallow lands."

The Survey has also identified the districts where the farm stress is evident. Rise in fallow land has been mostly witnessed in Western Odisha, the region that witnessed maximum farm suicides over the years.

The above inferences by the Eco-Survey 2019-20 put question marks over State government's procurement policy and claim of gradually increasing irrigated potential in the State.

The Economic survey has prescription to prune the worrying trend of rising fallow land and declining net sown area. It says, "This trend can be changed through policies like contract farming and higher incentives to farmers for optimum use of land."

Even, the Naven-led BJD government's KALIA scheme has no incentives for farmers to encourage them use the land optimally.

Here is a  real warning served by the Eco-Survey 2019-20, when the State government is virtually in seventh heaven for getting Krishi Karman Awards.

The shocker it delivered is the cropping intensity in Odisha has dropped below the 2005-06 level. In 2005-06, the cropping intensity in the State is 157 per cent, the same in 2018-19 stood at 156 per cent. Cropping intensity is defined as raising of a number of crops from the same field during one agricultural year.

The decline in cropping intensity in the farm sector now looks acute. Because, it was observed that the cropping intensity in 2013-14 had been 167 per cent. The significant mention here is in the year 2013-14, Odisha witnessed natural calamity in the shape of Phailin and followed by heavy floods due to a severe depression.

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