Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Prospects good for oilseed production

Staff Reporter

Storage in Lower Bhavani Reservoir up after heavy rain

ERODE: Due to comfortable storage in the Lower Bhavani Reservoir, prospects for oilseed production are bright in the district. Due to heavy rain, the Lower Bhavani Reservoir has received copious inflow. The present storage is 31 tmcft against the full capacity of 32 tmcft.

Canal breach

In the last week of November, the district received heavy rain and the Kalingarayan Canal breached in 14 places. There was a major breach near Malayampalayam causing heavy damage to the standing paddy crop. Similarly near Dharapuram, paddy crop was affected due to flood in Amaravathy river. But Agricultural Department officials said that there was no major crop damage in the district.

In Kalingarayan ayacut, paddy harvest was nearing completion. Water supply into the canal was stopped. The farmers would raise paddy as third crop within a few days. In LBP ayacut, the paddy harvest would be completed by the first week of January. In Thadapalli and Arakkankottai ayacut, the paddy was transplanted and the crop was in flowering stage.

Farmers of LBP ayacut appealed to the district administration to release water for dry crops in the second week or third week of this month. The Lower Bhavani Project ayacut farmers said that gingelly and groundnut would be raised as second crop. Agricultural Department officials said that they expected gingelly to be raised on over 20,000 hectares, groundnut on 15,000 hectares and sugarcane on about 15,000 hectares. Many farmers preferred to switch over to sugarcane, officials said. As many as 40,000 coconut seedlings were ready for supply to farmers.

Coconut trees are in good condition and due to the rain, the eriophyid mite attack had come down.

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