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Bhubaneswar (Orissa) : The southwest monsoon on Monday covered entire Orissa, bringing new hope for the state's farmers, officials said.
Farmers who had not sown their crops till a few days back have now started sowing their fields while those who had gone in for early sowing can now hope the seeds will bloom.
"There was a fear of seedling drought but now with the widespread rainfall, that has been averted," agriculture and food production director Arabinda Kumar Padhee said.
Last year by this time, paddy cultivation had started in nearly 1,300,000 hectares area, he said, adding in 2009, paddy cultivation was reported in only 950,000 hectares but expected to pick up in the rest of the area during the next few days.
Orissa is one of the major rice-growing states in India, with about four million hectares under paddy cultivation. However, over 62 percent of this area is rain-fed.
The monsoon normally arrives in the state by June 10. But Orissa was witnessing a dry spell.
The meteorological centre here said many parts of the state have witnessed rain during past four days and the southwest monsoon covered the entire state Monday.
"The southwest monsoon has covered all the districts of the state today (Monday)," S.C. Sahu, director of the Bhubaneswar meteorological centre said.
