Download National Rainfed Area Authority Crop Advisory for Flood

National Rainfed Area Authority
Crop Advisory for Flood affected Areas-2013
Occurrence of Flood
In the current Kharif season, rainfall arrived about two weeks to one month earlier in
various parts of North and North-West regions of the country. Bursting of clouds and a
glacier lake in Uttarakhand and excessive rains in eastern U.P., West Bengal, Bihar
Assam etc have caused flooding of large areas around major rivers like Mandakini,
Ganges, Ghaghara, Kosi, and Brahmaputra and their tributaries at many places. There
are 185 flood gauzing stations in the country and flood situation at a typical station
Neamatighat (Jorhat ) in Assam is illustrated in Figure 1.
These floods have arrived almost two weeks to one month earlier than normal time of
floods in the past (Figure 2 up to July 14). Flood occurrences swelled after heavy
rains, cloud burst and over flowing of a glacier lake during 16-17 June, 2013. Flooding
in Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal is quite active.
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In some the states they have caused deluge and damaged infrastructure in
others. Farmers grow short duration vegetables like Okra, Pumpkin, Bottle
gouard, ridge gouard, water melon, etc. in and around river beds. In Ganges and
Ghaghara plains farmers grow summer maize, summer moong, summer rice,
and fodder crops like jowar and bajra in plains of Uttar Pradesh. Off season
vegetables like peas, tomato, cauliflower, pulses like rajmash, crops like maize
etc are grown in higher hills during early spring rains. Commercial fruits like apple
were due for harvesting and got damaged. Heavy rains and untimely floods (one
month before normal time) have caused serious damage to above crops. Most
of these summer crops are cultivated
as cash crops by poor farmers. In
Himachal Pradesh certain areas remained cut off due to extensive damage of
roads and farmers are experiencing problems in marketing the peas, vegetables,
other crops and produce particularly in Sangla Valley. The peas is being
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transported manually to the road and created marketing problems for survived
crops. Among the Kharif crops, higher area coverage compared to normal area in
the corresponding period and or area covered during last year is reported in rice,
pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals in the current season (as on 12-7-13) in
many flood affected states (Table 1). These untimely floods may have adversely
affected the crops sown in the above States as reported by newspapers and
electronic Media. The formal survey will, of course, give the exact numbers at
various stages subsequently.
Crop Advisory for re-sowing of crops in flood affected areas
One month early arrival of floods may have damaged the already sown
crops as the sowing data indicates higher area coverage by 12th July this year
compared to last year.
In such a scenario, re-sowing of short duration crops is
urgently required. A brief advisory for re-sowing of crops for the States affected
by floods is as follows:
Re-sowing and Transplanting of Rice:
The damaged crop areas
of rice due to early floods may be re-sown with early maturing varieties of
rice. It would also be advantageous to adopt direct seeding of rice rather
than transplanting to avoid delay in sowing as soon as the water recedes.

Adoption of new flood tolerant varieties of rice in deep water areas:
In the States of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, eastern U.P. and Assam,
there is large area of rice under deep water situations. Early floods may
damage the deep water rice crop due to flooding for more than two weeks.
In such a situation, re-sowing/transplanting of rice varieties recently
developed for extended deep water flood tolerance like Swarana sub-1
may be adopted to minimize risks of rice in flood prone areas.

Re-sowing of pulses/oilseeds and coarse cereals: In case the water
recedes by middle or up to 3rd week of July, re-sowing of Kharif pulses like
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Table 1. Crop area sown in the current year compared to normal area sown in the corresponding period and area
sown during 2012.
Rice
State
Assam
Uttar
Pradesh
Bihar
Coarse Cereals
Normal of
correspo
nding
week
2013
Normal
of
correspo
nding
2012 week
6.64
6.01
6.03
0.02
20.64 16.27
2.64 0.53
14.38
3.12
Pulses
Oilseeds
2013
Normal of
correspo
nding
2012 week
2013
Normal
of
corresp
onding
2012 week
2013
2012
0.19
0.10
0.03
0.00
0.06
0.00
0.01
0.00
6.79
1.31
4.71
3.01
5.88
0.00
1.00
0.01
3.89
0.34
0.94
0.00
0.33
0.002
0.95
0.02
0.49
0.01
Uttarakhand
Madhya
Pradesh
1.64
1.46
1.77
2.45
1.92
1.80
0.10
0.33
0.00
0.002
0.03
0.00
2.40
4.20
2.50
5.00
11.62
0.00
1.80
7.29
0.52
27.92
59.84
30.05
West Bengal
3.96
1.5
1.25
0.25
0.2
0.10
0.13
0.37
0.20
0.03
0.04
0.027
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Urd, Moong, Arhar, and Kulthi may be taken up urgently. These crops can
be planted up to the end of July without much yield losses.

Plant Toria as a short duration Oilseed crop in August: In
case
of
water recedes late in July, it is better to prepare plan and sow Toria in the
end of August, which can mature in 60-65 days and vacate the land for
Rabi sowing.

Intensification of boro rice: Boro rice is cultivated in waterlogged low
lying or medium lands with irrigation during December to May in Assam,
Bihar, Eastern U.P. Odisha and West Bengal. In these regions water
accumulates during monsoon months and cannot be drained out in winter
months. Boro rice has 2-3 time higher productivity (5-6 t / ha) against
traditional kharif rice (1.3-2.5 t / ha). Its yield is more on account of better
water management, longer duration, more sunshine and least infestation
of pests and diseases. Due to recent floods some more area may be
covered under boro rice in the aove mentioned states. Nursery for boro
rice is sown in the last week of November to December preferably under
polyhouses to protect against coldness. Boro rice may be incentivized by
supporting low cost polyhouses and / or low plastic tunnels for raising
nursery to avoid cold injury to seedlings where temperatures are low.

Increase area under the pre-Rabi Arhar in eastern India: New Arhar
varieties suitable for pre-Rabi sowing i.e. last week of August and early
September in uplands of Eastern India have given good results. Varieties
like ‘Sharad’ can be planted as late as first week of September with yield
potential of 2 t/ha. Area of pre-Rabi arhar can be increased in Bihar,
eastern U.P. and West Bengal in all uplands to compensate for any losses
in production of other Kharif pulse crops in Kharif due to floods.

Re-sowing/transplanting of vegetable crops:
Losses to vegetable
crops grown in river beds and adjoining areas have occurred due to early
floods. These crops be planted again in uplands to compensate for losses
in their production.
Short duration varieties of vegetable crops, would
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therefore, be required by the farmers.
The immediate requirement is,
therefore, to arrange for seeds of short duration crop varieties which can
be planted again in flood affected areas of Assam, Uttarakhand, U.P.,
West Bengal and Bihar.

Rejuvination of Orchards: Flood affected orchards specially Apple in
Himachal Pradesh (Kinnaur) and Uttarakhand need special attention.
Training and pruning of affected trees and removal of debris, if any, needs
to be taken up immediately.
In addition, planting and gap filling in
orchards with new saplings can be taken up in the current monsoon
season. Similarly, other affected orchards may also be taken up for gap
filling with new saplings. Intercultural operation will be helpful in better
aeration in the soil and removal of grasses in the orchards.

Sowing of fodder crop:
Flood affected areas suffer from loss of
vegetation, along with loss of sown crops. The immediate need in such
areas is to plant fodder crops like jowar, maize and grasses like Sudan
grass which grow fast to provide feed to livestock.
Necessary
arrangement for supply of seeds of fodder crop in such areas may be
taken up on priority.
Livestock and Fisheries sector
Although exact figures are not available about the death of livestock and wild life but
there are some qualitative estimates. In flood affected states especially in Uttarakhand
apart from loss of livestock, a large number of ponies/ mules have been reported to be
stranded at different locations viz. Hemkund, Jingurpani, Rambada and Gaurikund. In
Himachal Pradesh, the major causality due to floods is goats and sheep especially in
Kinnaur district. It is reported that more than 2000 small ruminants have died in the
region. Simalr reports are coming from Assam and Uttar Pradesh
Traditionally Riverine Fisheries is predominant in all the flood affected States. It is
expected that the high intensity floods would have resulted in damages of natural
breeding grounds, flushing down of seedlings (fingerlings) due to high velocity of water
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and high silt load. Shift in the courses of many of the rivers has been reported . The
long term effects and remedies of these changes need to be ascertained.
Two major impacts are to be anticipated in the fisheries sector .
I.
Loss of diversity
II.
Reduction of fish population in the coming seasons
Migration of wild life to safe places has been reported in Kaziranga and other flooded
areas. This has exposed them to poachers and proper vigilance is called upon
Advisory for Livestock and Fisheries
Livestock:
It is important to address the following issues in the livestock sector to limit any
further loss of livestock wealth, which ensures immediate livelihood opportunities to
flood affected farmers in the region.
I. Dead animal carcasses, if any, be disposed properly for preventing spread of
diseases.
II. Erection of temporary animal shelters at community / village level for housing of
animals to be initiated on priority.
III. Arrangements to be made for adequate supply of feed and fodder by sourcing
from neighboring districts/states. A Hub and Spokes model for ensuring supply of
feed and fodder to milch animals at farmers door step may be set up.
IV. Preventive vaccination against HS, BQ and Enterotoxaemia may be taken up in a
campaign mode. Vaccines should be positioned at strategic places for ensuring
easy and quick supply.
V. Severe worm infestation due to muddy water and non-availability of clean and
safe fodder/feed is quite common. Large scale de-worming need to be carried
out.
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Fisheries:
As a part of post floods contingent plan, it needs to be ensured that efforts are directed
towards de-silting of ponds and tanks, reconstruction of breached embankments and
removal of predator fishes if found any. In order to restore fish productivity, artificial reseeding or ranching of water bodies during the post flood period is desirable.
Fishermen, who have lost their fishing equipments need to be provided fresh
equipments to ensure that they can resume their livelihood activities at the earliest.
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