Ploughing turns expensive; price of seeds, fertilizers and insecticides increase as transportation costs rise
Spiralling prices of petroleum products has ushered in tough times for the farmers of Bihar: The cultivation process has turned costlier by almost 40 per cent.
The rise in petroleum prices has not only turned ploughing more expensive, but also increased the prices of seeds, fertilizers and insecticides because of a hike in transportation cost.
Petrol prices soared past Rs 100 a litre in all 38 districts of Bihar this farming season. Farmers are heavily dependent on petroleum products for farming. Electricity is not available in all fields.
This may threaten agricultural practices in Bihar, where 76 per cent population is engaged in agriculture works for livelihood.
“Agriculture has become a costly job for us with everything related to farming going costly due to rise in petroleum prices, but we have no option as such,” said Manoj Kumar, a farmer from East Champaran. The small and marginal farmers are more affected by the current development, he said.
According to him, a farmer is currently charged around Rs 80 for ploughing 1,361 square feet of land against Rs 30-40, which was the average cost last year.
“Farming is a compulsion, since there is no other option of earning livelihood in this landlocked state,” he said.
Kumar said earlier, the petroleum prices grew slowly. “The prices fluctuate a lot,” he added.
A farmer from Bihta block in Patna district Ram Prakash Singh said he paid Rs 6,000 for ploughing 10 bighas of agricultural land in 2020. “But this year, I had to pay Rs 8,000.”
He will have to pay the same amount, if not more, for irrigating his paddy seedlings once they are transplanted.
The trouble comes amid excess monsoon rainfall, destroying the paddy seedlings and maize plants in several districts of Bihar. Due to continuous rainfall, farmers have been facing problems in transplanting paddy seedlings or sowing maize seeds.
“The total paddy plantation accounts for 3.54 per cent of the total land area. Last year, it was 9.44 per cent during the same period,” said joint agriculture director (statistics), Shankar Kumar Chaudhary.
He said the sowing of maize has also been badly affected due to rainfall. “Only 29 per cent of maize could be sowed this year against 47 per cent last year,” said Chaudhary. He added that water-logging on farmlands was another area of concern.
The state recorded 137 per cent excess rains till June 28 this year compared to last year, leaving the farmland heavily waterlogged or flooded, according to a report of the agriculture department.
The state received 349.11 mm rainfall in June this year, according to a report of the agriculture department. The maximum rainfall of 647 mm was reported from West Champaran; the minimum of 188.2 mm was recorded in Purnia.
Such is the situation that quite many areas in some north Bihar districts such as West Champaran, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur have faced flooding, prompting the villagers to flee homes.
“It’s double trouble for us. Excess rainfall has destroyed a quarter of paddy seedlings. We are sure to miss the farming season if we go sowing paddy seeds again,” said Sandeep Yadav, a farmer from Gopalganj district.
According to him, the timing for farming is different in north and south Bihar; farmers in north Bihar normally transplant paddy by July 15.
Yet, some farmers have been sowing paddy seeds again. Agriculture officials said the paddy transplantation works would pick up once the situation gets normal.
Bihar has a total geographical area of about 93.60 lakh hectares, out of which only 56.03 lakh hectares is the net cultivated area and 79.46 lakh hectares is the gross cultivated area, according to a report of agriculture department.
About 33.51 lakh hectares net area and 43.86 lakh hectares gross area receive irrigation from different sources. Principal food crops are paddy, wheat, maize and pulses. Main cash crops are sugarcane, potato, tobacco, oilseeds, onion, chillies and jute and. ‘’
Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 sq km, which is 7.1 per cent of its geographical area.
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