RICE CRISIS
The southwest monsoon revival has resulted in the total area sown under the Kharif crops not only recovering but even surpassing however paddy down from last year. While overall crop coverage has risen since last year, that of rice is down. Deficient rainfall in key areas is among the reasons.
SHOULD THAT BE CAUSE FOR WORRY?
Not much because-
- Government godowns had over 47.2 million tonnes of rice which is nearly three and a half times the minimum level of stocks to meet both operational (public distribution system) and strategic reserve (exigency) requirements for the quarter.
- Rice, is India‘s largest agricultural crop (accounting for over 40% of the total food grain output) with the country also being the world’s biggest exporter.
- While in wheat faced a bad harvest due to a heat wave that did all damage and brought down stocks to just above the minimum buffer.
WHY HAS ACREAGE FALLEN
- Farmers first sow paddy seeds in nurseries, where they are raised into young plants. These seedlings are then uprooted and replanted 25-35 days later in the main field which is usually 10 times the size of the nursery seed bed.
- Nursery sowing generally happens before the monsoon rains. Framers wait for their arrival to undertake transplantation, which requires the field to be a puddle or tilled in standing water.
- For the first three weeks or so after transplanting, the water depth has to be maintained at 4-5 cm, to control weed growth in the early stage of the crop.
- Though the country received a good monsoon a vast paddy-growing belt from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal has had very little rain. So reported lower acreage.
According to AK Singh, director of the New Delhi-based Indian Agriculture Research Institute, farmers may well end up raising nurseries afresh. But they will have to plant shorter duration varieties of about 125 days(seed –to grain maturity)_ instead of 155 days. That would translate into 1-2 tonnes less yield per hectare.
In eastern UP farmers with access to basic irrigation also practised the Sanda –double transplanting method of paddy cultivation under conditions of delayed rainfall.
In this case, the seedlings are uprooted after 25 days in the n8ursery and replanted in a puddled field that is only about twice the former area
The plants after establishment begin tillering and are, thus rejuvenated for the next 10-15 days .when the rains come; they are again uprooted and replanted in the main field 10 times the size of the original nursery.
Paddy yields from Sanda are said to be better than from the regular one-step transplanting. The reason for it is that the Sanda plants have already tillered and their establishment in the main field would be near 100% with little mortality. Yields are 15-20% more, but that is offset by higher costs because transplanting labour has to be paid twice. Sanda makes sense only in today’s delayed monsoon situation.
SO IS THERE A CRISIS AHEAD IN RICE?
- No not now. India Meteorological Department has forecast that the current monsoon trough, which is active and south of its normal position, is very likely to shift gradually northwards, bringing respite to Gangetic plains.
- Paddy cultivation takes place across a wide geography, unlike wheat that is grown only in a few states north of Vindhya.
- Rice is both Rabi and Kharif season crop, so losses in one area or season can be recouped from the other.
