Rice Production Takes a Hit in Manipur

By Sobhapati Samom
 
Imphal, Oct 26 : The recent flood in Manipur has destroyed standing agricultural crops in 20,000 hectares of the State’s agricultural fields. This is likely to affect the targeted rice production of the State, official sources here said.

Among the affected areas, Imphal East district remains the worst affected as water submerged 10,738 hectares of rice fields,124 hectares of vegetable farms and 11 hectares of spices, besides displacing 23,000 families under 55 villages.

One N Muhindro, a resident of Okram Chuthek in the district who use to get 40 bags of rice (50kg per bag) on an average from his rice field measuring half a hectare at Loumanbi Loukon field, is now planning to buy the same for the season as the recent flood had destroyed the standing crops.

“I had no option to buy the rice requirement for a season from somewhere else as my field is under water now”,the resident said. More than 23,000 families under 55 villages besides livestock including 1,089 numbers of cattle, 583 pigs and 3,600 numbers in poultry have been affected in Imphal East district alone, according to official sources.

The most destruction caused by the flood are also to the fish farms of the district and farmers have no means of blocking the fish from escaping from the farm ponds as the flash flood occurred, a total of 35 hectares of fish farms have been affected and the property lost is valued at Rs 35 lakh.

In a letter addressed to Commissioner,State Agriculture department, L Palendro Singh, Director,Agriculture department, it was estimated that standing crops in 20,081.10 hectares were damaged. Out of the total of the standing crops damaged, 18,189 hectares were in the valley areas while the rest (1892.10 hectares) were in the hill areas.

The State had targeted production of six lakh metric tonnes of rice this year. Last year, the State could not achieve the targeted rice production due to drought and consequently a scarcity of rice,sources added.

This report was compiled after officials of the Agriculture department conducted a joint field survey with the Revenue department in the last few days after the flood situation had improved.

As per the Agriculture director’s report, Imphal East district recorded the highest damage. Out of total paddy fields of 745. 30 hectares in the district, the flood damaged around 6,898 hectares. For the hill districts, where 745.30 hectares of paddy fields were damaged. Chandel district was the worst affected.

Not only the paddy fields, the floods also damaged potato and pea fields to the extent of 78 hectares, the report said. The district-wise reports of damaged crops was recorded as Imphal East (6898 hectares) Imphal West (4018 hectares), Bishnupur (2471 hectares), Thoubal (5106 hectares), Senapati (522.50 hectares), Tamenglong (158.50), Churachandpur (335.50 hectares), Chandel (745.30 hectares) and Ukhrul (130 hectares).

To cope up with the damages, the State Agriculture department is expected to provide Rs 30,000 for damage of crops by natural calamities to the farmers under the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme.

On the other hand, the department has started distribution of Rabi crop seeds like, pea, mustard and maize seeds to the farmers so that they could raise the off season and cope up with the damage they have suffered. But for this, the fields need to be dry by December this year”, a senior Agriculture officer said. The department is also considering for draining the waterlogged lands for early cultivation of Rabi crops.