The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Efforts on to offset shrinking land availability for farming

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Efforts on to offset shrinking land availability for farming

S.Vydhianathan

Proposal for policy to check conversion of farmland for other use

CHENNAI: The State Government has mooted proposals to offset the shrinking land availability for agriculture.

The proposals include use of marginal lands for non-agricultural purposes, development of wasteland for agriculture and afforestation, a land use policy to check conversion of agricultural land for other purposes, and utilising marginal lands for non-agriculture uses. Over the years, there has been a steady fall in the cropping area in the State. The gross cropped area has declined from 73.8 lakh hectares in 1970-71 to 48 lakh hectares in 2000-01, and, the wasteland has increased to 24.55 lakh hectares in 2001-02.

The percentage of area sown more than once in the State is only 42 against the national percentage of 47.Not only has the land availability for farm practices been on the decline, water resources are also fast depleting. Already 97.5 per cent of surface water has been exploited forcing the State to depend fully on groundwater.

According to a note prepared by the Agriculture Department, continued use of chemical fertilizers has affected soil fertility and reduced the organic matter content from 1.2 per cent in 1971 to 0.68 per cent in 2002. This has also resulted in micronutrient deficiency throughout the State.

All these adverse factors have reduced the yield of most of the important crops such as paddy, millet, pulses, cotton and sugarcane, besides their profitability, leading to a decline in investment in agriculture.

Cropping plan

To meet the water requirement, the note said, special attention would be paid to conservation, management and optimum utilisation of the available resources and to promote participatory management and watershed development in rain-fed areas. Micro-irrigation and skimming fresh water in saline groundwater regions have also been proposed. The Government would also prepare alternate cropping plan for different agro climatic zones to take care of the seasonal fluctuations in rainfall. Steps would be taken to ensure timely availability and access to quality seeds.

The Government would evolve new varieties and technologies for rain-fed agriculture and effectively promote the adoption of new varieties and technologies. It would promote use of organic and inorganic fertiliser; green manuring, and vermin composing. It would equip all soil test laboratories with computers and visual diagnostic kit. The note said that these measures had to be taken as the food requirement of the State by the year 2020 would be 91.68 million tonnes of rice, 23.39 million tonnes of pulses, and 11.38 million tonnes of oilseeds.

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