Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Rain helps increase agricultural production

R. Sundaram

No pest attack reported as farmers followed instructions

ERODE: : Erode district is one of the rain shadow districts in the State and its annual average rainfall is around 717 mm. For the past few years, the district was in the grip of drought and the rainfall was very low. But this year till May, the district had received an average rainfall of 796 mm.

Following the advice of the Agriculture Department, the farmers of Lower Bhavani Project Ayacut, Kalingarayan, Thadapalli and Arakkankottai ayacuts raised paddy on 61,063 hectares of land. When the harvest was completed, the per-hectare average yield was 7 to 7.2 tonnes of paddy.

High yield

The Joint Director of Agriculture, T. S. R. Ramakrishnan, told The Hindu on Monday that due to the drought, paddy was raised only on 1,614 hectares last year. So, the yield this year was very high. He said because the farmers followed the instructions given by them, there was no pest or disease attack on paddy crop.

Similarly, the rainfed and irrigated groundnut had been raised on 46,700 hectares and the crop was harvested. The yield was around 2.5 tonnes per hectare, which was highly remunerative to the farmers. Gingelly was raised in over 88,000 hectares and the crop was in good condition and harvest was completed in many places.

Natural predators

Though sugarcane was raised on 21,900 hectares of land, it was facing pest problem in some places and the Agriculture Department was taking all efforts to control the pest attack by introducing natural predators against the pest.

He said many farmers had raised pulses, including horse gram on 27000 hectares of land and the crop was in a good condition.

Groundwater level up

Ramakrishnan said the recent rains in Erode district had helped increase groundwater level and also the open agricultural wells were filled up with water.

So, the farmers were happy and also raised quality fodder for milch animals. In Thalawady, Burgur and Kadambur forest areas, the tribal farmers had raised the ragi and niger (oilseed) and were getting good revenue.

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