Seed crisis grips Asom after drought

Guwahati, Sep 21 (UNI) An unprecedented seed crisis has hit Asom after drought wiped out about 20 per cent of agriculture output this year.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi revealed this while addressing a news conference, saying that the Asom Agricultural University(AAU) had been asked to deliver seeds, which can germinate in less water for the next year.

''This is a huge crisis. Both state and national agencies are not being able to cope up as we cannot import it from outside. There is no immediate solution. We hope they would be able to come out with some seed for the next sali season,'' he said.

Asom has been severely hit by drought like situation. Mr Gogoi promised to come out with a full picture as the agricultural department squirmed over the complete collapse of machinery in handling the crisis.

''You have to admit that we are used to flood and drought is alien to us. But this time that is happening all over the North East. However, the situation has marginally improved after last week's rain but is still not enough,'' he said.

Rice has been the primary crop for the cultivators of Asom and about 30 per cent of area could not be cultivated due to lack of rain as the irrigation department exists only on paper.

There are 1800 irrigation schemes in the state, of which 1250 are not working for years. ''There is no maintenance and we have also not been able to provide fund for maintenance,'' the Chief Minister said and promised that the irrigation department would soon give a complete picture of the drought management.

The Chief Minister, admitting lack of work by the irrigation department's failure, said that special measures had been taken to start its functioning. ''You have to work within the system,'' he said.

Meanwhile, there were reports that seeds supplied by government suppliers were either not germinating or were unsuitable for the Brahmaputra valley.

The government had started replacing those but adequate alternative stock had not been located in India, he said.

UNI MT PL SAM DB1032