Paddy alert in Bengal

Pranesh Sarkar, TT, Calcutta, Nov. 22: Around 35 per cent of the monsoon paddy in Bengal could go waste because of the demonetisation drive, an agriculture department estimate has suggested.

However, against the backdrop of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's vocal opposition to the domonetisation, a section of officials in Nabanna, the Bengal secretariat, felt it was "a bit early" to forecast crop losses.

Nabanna sources said the department drew up a report on the basis of feedback from all the districts. The government sought the report to gauge the impact of the demonetisation on the harvesting of the monsoon paddy. After the Centre recalled the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, reports poured in from rural Bengal that farmers could not harvest the produce as they had no money to pay the daily labourers.

"The estimates mentioned in the report suggest that there could be a loss of 35 per cent of the total paddy produced in the kharif season. If the crop is not harvested, it will rot in the fields. If the situation does not change dramatically, the state's total rice production is bound to be hit this year," a senior Nabanna official said.

According to agriculture department officials, if the kharif crop is not harvested by the end of November, the total production is affected.

"If the farmers keep paddy in the fields till the end of November, a large portion of the grain will fall off because of the changing weather conditions..... It will result in crop loss," another official said.

This would mean the farmers will face difficulties in recovering their investments.

Potato cultivation would also suffer if the kharif paddy is not harvested by the end of November, the sources said.

"The sowing of potato seeds needs to be completed by mid-December for a healthy production. If the kharif paddy remains in the fields till the end of November, farmers would not get time to prepare the fields to grow potato," an official said.

Some Nabanna officials said the report was based on estimates and the final production amount would be calculated only after the harvesting is completed. "It is a bit early to say that the state is going to face huge crop loss," an agriculture department official said. The report will be sent to the Centre tomorrow.

The major chunk of the yearly paddy production is done in the kharif season. Bengal produces about 158 lakh tonnes of rice annually, of which 110 lakh tonnes are harvested in the kharif season. The annual consumption requirement is 150 lakh tonnes.

"If 35 per cent of the kharif crop gets destroyed, the total rice production this year will come down to about 120 lakh tonnes," a source said.

"Farmers usually sell the boro (winter) paddy before the Pujas to meet festival expenses and the cost of harvesting the kharif crop. Most of the cash in the possession of farmers has become useless because of the demonetisation. So they have not been able to hire labourers for harvesting," the source said.

The agriculture department officials said the effect was already evident in the sluggish sales of potato seeds at state government centres.