The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Honing their techniques to reap more

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Honing their techniques to reap more

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. Hence, it is imperative to improve the age-old farm techniques.

The Agricultural College and Research Institute organised a seminar on `Alternate Cropping System' for farmers of Madurai district at its Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

The seminar stressed the importance of alternate cropping. A. Palchamy, Professor (Farm), explained the alternate cropping system followed at the central farm of the institute and referred to some of the crops, including `sorghum', `cumbu', sunflower, gingelly and maize, raised there. The cluster bean variety, `pusa naubahar', he said, yielded 2400 kg an acre with just 20 cm of rainfall.

Ganesaraja, Professor (Agronomy), called upon the farmers to raise cluster bean, which was gaining momentum in foreign countries. The softener obtained from the crop could be used in ice cream making, he said.

The participants also gave their feedback on the alternate cropping system followed in their areas.

Some of the alternate crops followed by the farmers were also spelt out. V. R. Paulpandi of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra suggested various alternate crops and varieties for the Periyar-Vaigai command area. Paddy required 120 cm of rainfall, but the alternate crop needed just 20-40 cm. `Cumbu' required 40 cm, gingely (20 cm), `cholam' (50 cm) and sunflower (50 cm). B. Gururajan, Professor and Head, Department of Agronomy, inaugurated the seminar.

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A college is known by the status of its almuni. The alumni association is essential for the overall development of an institution. Alumni can have a positive impact on new students. These points were stressed at the alumni and outgoing students' meet at the KLN College of Engineering, Pottapalayam. The Principal, S. Ganapathy, said any institution would grow by the status of its alumni. Ganesh Babu, an alumnus, gave details of placement avenues.

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The Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (Tamil Nadu), an entrepreneurship development institution, was shifted to Perungudi from its Travellers Bungalow premises last year for a better training environment for residential programmes.

The Centre opened an information centre in the city recently, for operational conveniences,

The Member-Secretary, R. Jayaraman, said the city office had several facilities, including a library, a teaching hall and a counselling hall.

The centre would offer special programmes to traders and businessmen through some of the useful courses, such as retail management, visual merchandising, customer relations and public relations.

He said the centre would function as a resource centre for offering special courses for women. It would offer executive secretaryship, beautician, interior decoration and apparel fashion design courses. It would also be a study-cum-information centre for the Directorate of Distance Education of Alagappa University, Dr. Jayaraman said.

S. Sudalaimuthu, Director of Distance Education, Alagappa University, said the directorate functioned between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and expected the study centres to follow this timing. K. Aludiapillai, former Vice-Chancellor, Madurai Kamaraj University, and president of CED Governing Board, inaugurated the centre. M. Lakshmanan, former Vice-Chancellor, MKU, and M. Balasubramanian, president, Madurai Jewellers' Association, spoke.

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(Contributed by

T. Saravanan in Madurai.)

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Honing their techniques to reap more