Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

Take to alternative crops, farmers told

Special Correspondent

Drought has rendered paddy cultivation difficult, says expert at a seminar

VELLORE: : D. Margabandhu, Joint Director of Agriculture, Vellore, has advised farmers in the district to go in for alternative and cash crops to overcome the drought that has rendered paddy cultivation difficult.

Maize requires less water; under rain-fed conditions, it will yield 800 kg-1000 kg an acre. The leaves may be used as fodder. Farmers lack awareness of the viability of alternative crops. Maize is cultivated in large tracts in the Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Anaicut and Kaniyambadi areas, but the produce is sold only as a munching foodstuff. Successive droughts have depleted the groundwater table. Though there has been above-normal rain in the Tirupattur and Vaniyambadi areas, no cultivation is possible in the ayacut areas. Hence, the farmers should cultivate maize, he said at a seminar on `Contract farming in maize', organised by the Shanthi Group of Companies, Coimbatore, and Ashwin Poultry Farms (India), here on Saturday.

R. Krishnamoorthy, managing director, Shanthi Group of Companies, said agriculture had been described as a sleeping giant. "But we cannot afford to be sleeping giants any more, if we have to improve our economy". Punjab, with just one-fourth of the area of Tamil Nadu, produced grains five times more. As maize is a good feed for chickens, there is good scope for poultry-based agriculture in the district. As against the government rate of Rs.525 a quintal, the Shanthi Group of Companies procures maize at Rs.550 from farmers under the contract farming system.

K. Nachimuthu, project officer (maize), Ashwin Poultry Farms, said the company, which required 5000 tonnes annually for its poultry feed mill at Kandaneri near here, would directly procure from the farmers, who could raise 32,000 plants on each acre.

Kothandasamy of the Broiler Coordination Committee, Palladam, said as against the annual requirement of 12 lakh tonnes of maize, the State got only five lakh tonnes. The demand was increasing every day.

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Take to alternative crops, farmers told

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