draught and caterpillar marred nua khai celeration

The draught-like situation coupled with heavy destruction of paddy due to Ledapoka (swarming caterpillar) has marred ‘Nua khai’ this year scheduled to be observed on coming Monday (24^th Aug). Nua Khai, the biggest agrarian festival that celebrates by the farmers of the western Orissa paying gratitude to the presiding deity for a good harvesting. The festival is a thanksgiving ceremony. But this time farmers do not know how to celebrate the occasion when many of them have not even completed the farming due to delay in rain. The farmers of the irrigated areas though completed the farming, are also struggling hard because of the destruction caused by Ledapoka (swarming caterpillar).

“We have struggled hard because of the delay monsoon and Poor rainfall this year. But what ever little hope we have had, now ledapoka has ruined us completely and we do not how to continue our living’, Rabi Pradhan a farmer of worst affected Rengali block of the district said .

Sources said, Sambalpur district has alone 194,000 ha of cultivable land out of which paddy has been sown in more than 60,000 ha so far. While lack of rainfall have turned the paddy fields dry, swarming caterpillars have swarmed over thousands of hectares (ha) of land, completely eating away the green paddy leaves.

“The swarming caterpillar has a capacity to destroy hundreds of hectare overnight as the pest multiplies rapidly and can completely damage crop in a hector of land in one single day. Application of pesticide by farmers has not been able to eliminate the pests as they have already swarmed over a large chunk of areas. So unless government does not take immediate action to check the spreading of the pest, farmers will be left with no option than to commit suicide like Balaram Bhoi of Gulamal”, the farmers’ leader Ashok Pradhan told. It may be mentioned that Balaram Bhoi (42) a marginal farmer was kill-self on 10^th this month after he found his paddy completely damaged by the caterpillar.

Sambalpur Deputy Director of Agriculture D.C. Pal said, the situation is under control as we have already started taking all type of preoccupation to check the swarming caterpillars. This is not new in agriculture, but normally it wash away in the rain. This time due to lack of rain, it becomes multiplied and created a havoc," Dhruba Charan Pal said. “We have taken the matter seriously and already spraying pesticide in affected field since 14^th August. Already 2443 liters of insect killer liquid have been sprayed through 600 spraying machines, he added.

On the other hand, the pre-nua khai market of various villages has experienced low transaction due to the draught-like situation. “It is a time when we make a good business in the rural weekly markets prior to Nua Khai but this year we do not see any enthusiasm among the farmers. This year we have experienced ever low business”, Binod Sahu, one cloth peddler who moves various rural markets said.