The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Wasteland development scheme proves fruitful

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Wasteland development scheme proves fruitful

By C. Jaishankar

Kamudhi (Ramanathapuram dt.) Aug. 9. The Comprehensive Wasteland Development Programme, a participatory wasteland development scheme with an aim of increasing cultivable land cover, brings a ray of hope among farmers, whose land was once considered useless because of non-availability of water.

The scheme was first implemented in Kamudhi block, a worst affected area of drought and barren land area of Ramanathapuram district in 2002-2003, with the active participation of farmers, non-governmental organisations and officials of agriculture, horticulture, agriculture engineering and forest departments.

Though, the officials had a tough time to rope in the farmers under the scheme initially, they succeeded after conducting a series of awareness campaigns and frequent interactions.

Under the scheme, nearly 1,46,000 seedlings were planted on 1457 acres at Ramasamypatti, Koolipatti, Eluvanoor, Vangarupuram, Achankulam, Keelamanathi, Melamanathi and Narasingampatti, all coming under the Kamudhi block. The seedlings included sapota, guava, cashew, amla, neem and tamarind etc.

Now, the areas that were selected for the wasteland development programme look greenery. Farming operations are in full swing. While plants such as neem, tamarind, pungan grow four to five feet, guava and sapota started yielding.

Marimuthu, president, Koolipatti Village Development Association, said guava seedlings planted on 25 hectares had started yielding.

"We have so far harvested more than half a tonne guava fruits and started earning money by marketing them. We never thought that we could earn money by cultivating barren lands, which were kept idle for years together," he added.

The Agriculture Officer, Shaiek Abdullah, said the seedlings planted during 2002-2003 were maintained at the survival rate of 70 to 90 percentages. After initial hiccups, the farmers had shown enormous interest in nurturing their farms.

J. Xavier Rajan Britto, Director of an NGO, who played active interest in enrolling farmers, said the collective efforts of the people concerned in the scheme had started yielding fruitful results. The programme areas would become groves within two to three years.

The Joint Director of Agriculture, Jayachandran, said nearly 2,26,000 seedlings were also planted in 2003-2004. A sum of Rs.1.61 crores had so far been spent on the wasteland development scheme.

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