The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Farmers advised to take up summer ploughing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 31, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Farmers advised to take up summer ploughing

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, MAY 30. Following good rain in the district, the Department of Agriculture has requested farmers to take up summer ploughing to facilitate seepage of water into the soil.

According to a release from the Joint Director of Agriculture, S. Vijayan, it has been planned to raise paddy on 350 hectares (ha), cholam on 75,000 ha, cumbu and ragi on 2,000 ha, maize on 10,000 ha and minor millets on about 1,000 ha during the kharif season. It has also been proposed to cover 22,000 ha under oilseeds and 15,000 ha under pulses.

Sufficient quantity of quality seeds - 55 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy, 18 MT of millets, 39 MT of oilseeds, 28 MT of pulses - are made available to farmers through the Agriculture Extension Centres of the district. About 1,60,000 bio fertilizers like Azospyrillum, Phosphobacteria and Rhizobium are now available for distribution to the farmers.

Farmers of the Udumalpet taluk can raise green manure crop. Farmers in Palladam and Mettupalayam can use 50 per cent of the recommended dose of fertilizers on crops in order to reduce the incidence of pest attack and diseases as the rainfall so far received is below normal.

He pointed out that 123.5 mm rainfall was received so far as against the normal hot weather period rainfall of 152.30 mm.

The Joint Director noted that a top dressing of 10 kg nitrogen to millets and two per cent DAP spraying to pulses were advocated to farmers to boost the yield. Basal application of 400 kgs of gypsum was recommended for groundnut crop. Pest surveillance was intensified.

Select dryland farmers of Kinathukadavu, Sulur, Sultanpet and Karamadai under the District Watershed Development Programme were asked to dig pits for planting tree saplings. At present 45,000 neem, vagai and silkcotton tree saplings were kept ready for distribution.

The farmers could contact the Assistant Directors of Agriculture, Pollachi, Palladam and Mettupalayam for guidance.

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