Agriculture Scenario

Agriculture Scenario

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION

Keonjhar is a land locked district with an area of 8240 km². It is situated in the northern part of Orissa. It is surrounded by Singhbhum district of Jharkhand in the North, Jajpur in the South, Dhenkanal and Sundargarh in the West and Mayurbhanj and Bhadrak in the East.

 

Geographical Area	8,31,000 ha
Geographical Location	Latitude – 21°01'N and 22°10'N Longitude – 85°11'E and 86°22'E
Geographical Boundary	North- Singhbhum Dist. of Jharkhand South- Jajpur  Dist. East- Mayurbhanj and Bhadrak Dist. West -Dhenkanal and Sundergarh  Dist.

 

 

AGRO-ECOLOGICAL SITUATION

 

Phytogeographically, the vegetation of Keonjhar district comes under two major divisions, north central plateau zone and northern central coastal plain. The district is covers under two agro climatic zone and six agro-ecological situations as indicated below:

 

 

                      

ACS and AES of Keonjhar District
Sl. No	Agro-climatic Zone	Agro-ecological situations	Blocks covered	Broad Soil groups
1	North Central Plateau Zone	Low elevation, Medium rainfall	Ghasipura	Alluvial
		Medium elevation, Low rainfall	Jhumpura & Saharpada	Red Lateritic
		Medium elevation , Medium rainfall	Keonjhar, Patna, Telkoi, Joda, Harichandanpur	Red Lateritic
		Medium elevation, High rainfall	Ghatagaon, Champua	Red Lateritic
		High elevation, High rainfall	Banspal	Red Lateritic
2	North Central Coastal Plain	Low elevation, low rainfall	Hatadihi  & parts of Anadpur,	Alluvial

 

 

SOIL

The soils of Keonjhar, by and large, constitute 75% red soil 2 to 5% mixed red and black soils and rest 20-23% red and yellow soils. The soils are mostly acidic in reaction; light textured in surface but heavier in sub-soil and are in low available K status. The major the major crops grown in the region are paddy, Maize,Blackgram,Greengram,Arhar,Horsegram,Sesamum,Nigerm,Mustard,Wheat,Mango,Guava,Citrus,Banana,Tomato,Brinjal,Cabbage,Cauliflower,Okra,Sweet Potato

 

 

Table 5, Major Soil of Keonjhar District
S. No	Soil type	Characteristics	Area (000ha)	Percent (%)
1	Red Soil	Presence of excess amounts iron oxide, has sub angular blocky structure Mostly acidic, low OM content, N and available P, Deficient in Ca, Mg, B and Mo. Poor water retention capacity	342.0	41.2
2	Mixed red and yellow	Moderately acidic, low in N and P, rich in K.	241.0	29.0
3	Mixed red and black	Neutral in reaction, medium fertility status, Ca and Fe are moderately present, Deficient in Mo	91.4	11.0
4	Lateritic	Rich in hydrated oxides of Fe and Al with small amount of manganese. Poor in N, P, OM and has medium level of   K. Mild to strong acidic. P fixation is high. Available sulphur is low	83.0	10.0
5	Alluvial	Light textured soils with low WHC, base saturation, fertility. Usually acidic to neutral and alkaline. Drainage is poor due to low permeability. Deficient in N,P,S and medium in K	73.0	8.8

            Figure shows that 41.2 percent soils are red soil, 29 percent mixed red and yellow, 11 % mixed red and black, 10% lateritic followed by 8.8% are alluvial in nature across the district.

 

Sandy soils are found in uplands and clayey soils are in low land. Soils of Ghasipura Patna and Anadnpur blocks are red soils and the rest 10 blocks are laterite soils. 31% of area comprise of acid soils, 61% neutral and 8% are alkaline in nature. In so far as nutrient index of the district is concerned, N is medium (1.90), P is low (1.21) and K is medium (2.36).

Table 6: Soil Fertility Indices (Figures in Percentage)                                                  (For latest year)
Sl. No.	Block	PH			EC(ds/m)			% of area under Soil Salinity		Organic Carbon					Available N (Kg/ha)						Available P (Kg/ha)					Available K (Kg/ha)
		Acidic	Neutral	Alkaline	Low	Medium	High			Low		Medium		High	Low		Medium		High		Low	Medium			High	Low	Medium	High
1	Keonjhar	68	23	9	100	--	--	0		54		39		7	54		39		7		47	44			9	38	50	12
2	Saharpada	73	19	8	100	--	--	0		58		32		10	58		32		10		40	50			10	32	48	20
3	Banspal	60	37	2	100	--	--	0		48		37		15	48		37		15		68	22			10	30	49	21
4	Telkoi	88	10	3	100	--	--	0		73		25		2	73		25		2		80	15			5	20	55	25
5	Ghatagaon	62	33	2	100	--	--	0		43		48		9	43		48		9		52	33			15	18	45	37
6	Patna	82	14	5	100	--	--	0		43		49		8	43		49		8		64	24			12	15	65	20
7	Harichandanpur	70	28	4	100	--	--	0		56		37		7	56		37		7		41	49			10	15	67	18
8	Anandapur	55	35	10	100	--	--	0		56		38		6	56		38		6		68	24			8	20	55	25
9	Ghasipura	78	17	5	100	--	--	0		41		54		5	41		54		5		49	39			12	18	62	20
10	Hatadihi	65	23	12	100	--	--	0		60		28		12	60		28		12		42	43			15	20	58	22
11	Champua	60	35	5	100	--	--	0		40		41		9	40		41		9		55	27			18	15	55	30
12	Jhumpura	76	22	2	100	--	--	0		48		45		7	48		45		7		48	40			12	18	57	25
13	Joda	80	15	5	100	--	--	0		40		48		12	40		48		12		53	37			10	14	61	25
Total:-		71	24	5	100			0		48		43		9	48		43		9		53	35			12	20	55	25

 

CLIMATE

 

The climate of the district is characterized by an oppressively hot summer with high humidity. Summer generally commences in the month of March. Temperature begins to rise rapidly attaining the maximum in the month of May. During the Summer maximum temperature is 38.2⁰ C. The weather becomes more pleasant with the advent of the monsoon in June and remains as such up to the end of October. The temperature in the month of December is lowest i.e. 11.7⁰ C. Sometimes it even drops down to 7⁰ C. The average annual rainfall is 1534.5 mms. The month wise rainfall are stated below:

 

AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Agriculture is main sector of the district which provides livelihood to nearly two-thirds of total workforce in the district. The area under irrigation is about 24 percent of the total cultivated area. Agriculture is the backbone of the district economy. Therefore,  it  is  essential  to  deal  with  this  sector  in  a  proper  way to increase 4 % agricultural growth in the 12th fifth year plan. Heavy pressure on land has resulted in large scale unemployment and under employment in the rural area. Keonjhar district is having 53 % upland followed by 34 % medium and 13 % low land. The district is rich in both groundwater and surface water resources. About 63308 ha  of the total irrigated area (31.06lakh ha)  is irrigated during Kharif season and 31897 ha  is irrigated (assured irrigation) during Rabi season. As per the ground water resources assessed during 2009, the total annual replenishable ground water resources in the district is 81323 ham. The block wise ground water resources are given in Table 3. Around 4130 ham of the total ground water is used in domestic and industrial water supply. The available ground water resource for irrigation in net terms is 61690 ham. Net ground water availability for future irrigation development is 113353 ham. Over all the present level of ground water development is only 25.55 percent in the district with the maximum in Anandapur block viz. 44.84% and minimum in Bansapal block 11.1%. Hence the district as well as all the blocks come under the white category. Therefore, the challenge before the agriculture department today is to ‘produce more from less’ i.e., more nutritious food from less land, water and other resources. Another challenge is to protect what we produce. These can be accomplished only through new technologies as the existing technologies do not seem to be adequate. Recent advances made in biotechnology offer exciting opportunities to address some of these challenges. Transgenic technology in crops is one of the most powerful methods and has already made some breakthrough in this endeavour.

Ground Water Resoureces of  the District.

 

Sl. No.	Assessment unit/block	Net Annual Ground Water Availability	Existing gross ground water draft for irrigation		Existing gross ground water draft for domestic and industrial water supply	Existing gross ground water draft for all uses	Allocation for domestic and industrial requirement supply up to next 25 years	Net ground water availability for future irrigation development		Stage of ground water development (%)
1	Anandapur	3615	1474		147	1621	172	1969		44.84
2	Banspal	8895	864		123	987	146	7885		11.10
3	Champua	3947	1192		424	1616	177	2578		40.94
4	Ghashipura	5880	1391		173.28	1564	233	4256		26.60
5	Ghatagaon	8385	931		149.81	1081	179	7275		12.89
6	Harichandanpur	7470	1033		168.90	1202	226	6212		16.09
7	Hatadihi	7385	2504		229.98	2734	275	4606		37.02
8	Jhumpura	4960	1263		154	1417	173	3524		28.57
9	Joda	3926	637		1824	2461	715	2574		62.68
10	Keonjhar	7966	1865		368.28	2233	239	5862		28.03
11	Patna	5731	1562		128.64	1691	161	4009		29.51
12	Saharapada	5648	1147		122	1269	135	4366		22.47
13	Telkoi	7515	782		117	899	159	6574		11.96
District Total		81323		16645	4130	20775	2990	61690	25.55

 Paddy is the subsistence crop and grown as a major cereal in the district. Apart from paddy, green gram, black gram, gram etc. are grown in the district. Paddy production has substantially increased from 278 thousand MTs in 2008-09 to 413.09 thousand MTs in 2013-14. The paddy cultivated is an area of 1,75,370 ha. Out of which upland paddy area is 1.58 lakh ha followed by medium land paddy area is 1.01 lakh ha and low land paddy is 0.38 lakh ha. Commercial crops like Jute and potato are grown in the district.  The climate is conducive for oil seeds and pulses.

 

Land Utilisation Statistics (Year-2014-15)          (Area in hectares)