FIRE DESTROYS PROGRESSIVE FARMER’S SUGARCANE CROP

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Friday, 03 February 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

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Sugarcane crop worth about Rs 4 lakh of a progressive farmer of Khariar town in Nuapada district was recently completely devastated due to fire. Electric cables, water pumps, drip irrigation system and supply pipes valued at Rs 3 lakh were also melted. Over 500 teak plants in the field were also gutted.
Ajit Panda, a doctor by profession, has a passion for agriculture, which prompted him to spare much of his time in farming activities. He had cultivated sugarcane in five acre of land and the crop was ready for harvesting. He had already made deals with some juice makers to sell the canes at Rs 600 per quintal. But the fire put on by neighbourhood farmers in their fields spread to his field and destroyed the crop and other properties in a matter of a few minutes before the fire brigade reached.
"I had invested about Rs 10 lakh for developing the infrastructures and the crop but could not insure anything as there is no provision for insuring sugarcane," said Panda. The Government has included cotton and black gram under insured crops from last year in addition to paddy. But many other crops cultivated by local farmers had not been covered under insurance schemes, which discourages farmers to take risk, he said.
"The Government through horticulture and agriculture departments have propagated a number of innovations like shed nets, drip system and crops like capsicum, potato and chilly on commercial basis. But non-inclusion of such infrastructures and crops under insurance is failing the objective," said Tulsi Tandi of Koten Mundane village.
Tulsi had faced huge losses last year due to devastation of his shed nets and capsicum by cyclone. Likewise, Kubera Panda's sugarcane crop in more than ten acre was damaged in cyclone. But none of them got any compensation or subsidy.
"Such negligence by the Government has resulted in resentment among farmers, and most small and marginal farmers are opting out of agriculture and migrating elsewhere under distress conditions and facing exploitation," said Panda.

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