With favourable conditions prevailing in the district for a good ‘pisanam’ paddy season as reservoirs have decent storage of water even at the start of northeast monsoon, paddy has been cultivated on 14,607 hectares since April against the annual target of 43,000 hectares.
Addressing the farmers’ grievances redressal meet held at the Collectorate here on Friday, Collector V. Vishnu said the district had recorded 842.64 mm rainfall till October 27 against the normal rainfall of 495 mm – an excess rainfall of 70.23%. The five dams in the district, including Papanasam, Servalar and Manimuthar dam, have decent storage of 63.95% water – 8,237.48 mcft against the cumulative storage of 12,882 mcft.
Of the 1,290 irrigation tanks in the district – 740 systemised tanks and 550 rain-fed tanks – 107 tanks had water sufficient for two months of irrigation while 827 ponds had water sufficient for a month.
Agriculture Department had stocked 1,455 tonnes of urea after distributing 8,535 tonnes of the chemical nutrient. However, the district now had only 355 tonnes of Di-Ammonium-Phosphate (DAP) and 220 tonnes of complex fertilizers.
Hence, agricultural operations on 17,005 hectares – paddy on 14,607 hectares (annual target 43,000 hectares), millets on 260 hectares (1,400 hectares), grams on 1,390 hectares (10,000 hectares), cotton on 503 hectares (1,000 hectares), sugarcane on 28 hectares and oilseeds on 217 hectares (1,300 hectares) – had been taken up.
Since paddy could be insured for getting compensation in case of crop loss due to drought, flood, downpour etc., the farmers should insure it by paying ₹444 per acre before December 15, the Collector said.
For installing micro-irrigation equipment in fields for getting more yield while using lesser quantity of water, the district had received ₹9.52 crore towards subsidy. Interested farmers could approach Assistant Directors of Horticulture or Agriculture for getting micro-irrigation equipment subsidy.
Mr. Vishnu said 826 seed samples had been lifted from shops of 264 authorised sellers and 14 of these samples were found to be of inferior quality. Consequently, a ban has been imposed on selling 47.20 tonnes of these seeds, worth about ₹31.10 lakh.
When the farmers urged officials to desilt a few irrigation channels and repair shutters in channels before the northeast monsoon intensified, the officials assured that the works would be completed shortly.
Published - October 29, 2021 06:21 pm IST
