Diesel crisis affects agriculture

HATSINGIMARI, Feb 16: Kalapani along with its adjacent vast agricultural areas under Mankachar revenue circle plays a significant role in record amount of paddy production during three different seasons every year in the entire South Salmara-Mankachar subdivision in Dhubri district. The important area from the point of agriculture has been going through an uneasy phase due to diesel crisis to run the pump sets, on which the IR-8 paddy scheme is completely dependant in this season. There is only one diesel depot at Mankachar in the entire subdivision which has allegedly failed to supply the adequate quantity of diesel, a dire need of the farmers. Basically, the peasants are poor, who have a little capacity to stock the required quantity of diesel buying it from outside the subdivision to run their pump sets for the scheme they undertake. A pump set consumes a litre of diesel in an hour and it requires 8 to 10 litres a day. Four months of running a pump at regular basis is required to supply water to 20 bighas of land before harvesting. To stock such a huge quantity of diesel in advance is not an easy task for a poor farmer.Some of the farmers have expressed concern over their prevailing plight and wished the government to supply diesel to them at control rate to encourage cultivation at a large scale. They also said Kalapani area, being a big producer of paddy, have all the moral right to demand for a diesel depot at Kalapani.