[ Prafulla Kaman ]
PASIGHAT, 21 Jul: East Siang Deputy Commissioner Sonalika Jiwani has sought agriculture scientists’ help in mitigating farmers’ woes due to the prevailing drought-like situation in the district.
The DC urged the agriculture scientists at the College of Agriculture (CoA) to formulate a mitigation plan to ease the farmers’ hardships caused by the prolonged dry-spell, affecting wet rice cultivation.
This daily covered the news on unfavourable weather condition on its 11 July edition, highlighting the farmers’ hardships. The report drew the attention of the East Siang deputy commissioner as well as the scientists at the CoA.
The DC has written to the state government, seeking compensatory measures for the affected farmers. She has also sought technical guidance on alternative farming to help the farmers.
On Monday, Jiwani informed that she has submitted a report to the state government, apprising it of the prevailing situation and hardships faced by the farmers.
When contacted, CoA Dean Prof Sanjay Swami said that the East Siang district administration has approached the scientists to prepare an action plan to help the affected farmers.
The agriculture scientists suggested that the state government should facilitate cultivation of early-maturing paddy varieties and supply seeds of improved green gram and black gram as alternative crops.
