Scanty, deficient rainfall recorded across nine districts

Reported by Chinmay Dehury

Bhubaneswar, Sept 1 :

While the cumulative rainfall in Odisha up to August 26 has been a good 860 mm which is 0,6% above the normal figure for this period, farmers across nine districts have been badly hit due to scanty or deficient rainfall.

According to the latest met data, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack have received 59% less rainfall than normal and in districts like Angul, Bargarh, Jajpur, Khurdha and Sonepur it has been a very deficient rainfall with the deviation ranging between 39 % and 59 % below normal.

A review of the cumulative rainfall at the block level revealed that while as many as 17 blocks have received ‘severe deficient’ rainfall, eight other blocks have received scanty rainfall. However, thanks to availability of irrigation facilities, agricultural operation in these 8 blocks, barring Soro and Tangi Choudwar, has not been affected.

A senior official in the state Agriculture department said Odisha is expected to receive a good amount of  rainfall in the coming days and that would help the agricultural crop in the rain-deficient areas in the state.