Agriculture department issues advisory for kharif season

State department of agriculture has directed all district agriculture officers (DAOs), sub-divisional agriculture officers (SDAOs), departmental officers, field staff, and ATMA personnel to remain at their respective places of posting during the ongoing cropping season to ensure close monitoring and timely support to farmers.
In an advisory, agriculture director instructed all officers to stay vigilant and conduct real-time assessment of crop conditions, pest and disease incidences, and natural calamities. They have also been directed to submit timely field reports through designated WhatsApp groups to the directorate for prompt intervention.
Further, the department has directed district and sub-divisional offices to organise farmers’ training
and awareness programmes on monsoon crop management and contingency preparedness.
The department has instructed them to carry out regular surveillance and scouting for Fall Army Worm (FAW) in maize fields, along with monitoring of pest incidences above Economic Threshold Levels (ETL), in coordination with KVK and ATMA personnel.
The department has asked the officers to disseminate farmer advisories through field staff and ATMA Farmers’ Friends.
Advisories for farmers
For hill agriculture (jhum/shifting cultivation), the department has advised farmers to practice staggered log bunding across slopes to reduce runoff, plug gullies using locally available materials, stack lodged crops to minimize damage, and sow short-duration crops such as maize, pulses, and oilseeds up to the third week of June.
For terrace rice cultivation and wet rice cultivation (WRC), farmers have been advised to adopt staggered nursery sowing at two-week intervals, prepare side drains around nursery beds to prevent wash-off, use young seedlings for better yield, and undertake early field preparation while adopting direct seeding wherever feasible.
The department of agriculture has reaffirmed its commitment to timely monitoring, extensive farmer outreach, and coordinated pest surveillance, especially for FAW management, to safeguard crop production during the monsoon season.