Tamil Nadu   

Growing less water-intensive crops

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUVALLUR, SEPT. 12. A field camp to popularise less water-intensive crops, suitable for semi-arid climatic conditions, was held at Nallatur near Tirutani on Saturday.

Hundreds of farmers from the district attended the camp where the benefits of cultivating sweet sorghum, sugar beet and jatropha were highlighted. They also visited fields where cultivation of these crops taken up by a local farmer, Ramakrishna Naidu.

Mr. Naidu said he had found it easy to cultivate sweet sorghum (which is ready for harvest now) since it did not require arduous ploughing that had to be done prior to taking up of cultivation of paddy or groundnut. Stating that he expects a yield of 10 gunny bags of sorghum and 20 tonnes of stalks from an acre, Mr. Naidu expressed hope that the price offered by the Mohan Breweries and Distilleries, Chennai, (the company with which he had entered into a contract farming agreement) would help him get a reasonable profit in a short period.

Talking to reporters, the MBDL Managing Director, M. Nandagopal, said the State Government had permitted them to promote contract farming of sweet sorghum and sugar beet in Tiruvallur and Villupuram districts and jatropha in Tiruvallur district. The company plans to promote contract farming of sugar beet on 10,000 acres, sweet sorghum on 20,000 acres and jatropha on 50,000 acres in Tiruvallur district and sweet sorghum and sugar beet in around 1-lakh acres in Villupuram district.

At present it had been decided to extend Rs. 500 per tonne for sugar beet (for a recovery rate of 12.5 per cent), Rs. 400 per tonne for sweet sorghum and Rs.5000 per tonne for jatropha seeds under the buy-back arrangement, Mr. Nandagopal said.

Earlier, the Agriculture Minister, K. Pandurangan, and the Rural Industries Minister, B. Valarmathi, called upon the farmers to switch over to cultivation of sweet sorghum, sugar beet and jatropha.

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