The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Precision farming bears fruit in Thanjavur

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Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Precision farming bears fruit in Thanjavur

G. Srinivasan

THANJAVUR: The Soil and Water Management Research Institute at Thanjavur has introduced precision farming to the farmers of Thanjavur district. Twenty farmers have taken to precision farming with the help of the Institute and grown Ash gourds, bananas, chillies, brinjals, ribbed gourds, water melons and sugarcane.

According to Dr. T. Jayaraj, Professor and Head of the Institute, precision farming has been introduced by the institute and was being popularised among farmers. Under the scheme, the farmers get a subsidy of Rs 50,000 for raising crop in a unit which is 2.5 acres.

Ground reality

V.Parthiban of Melamathur village in Thiruvidaimaruthur taluk is a farmer who has grown ash gourds, chillies, banana and brinjals in 2.5 acres under precision farming.

“I have raised ash gourd on one acre, banana on half an acre, chillies on half an acre and brinjals on half an acre under precision farming. While I have harvested two yields of brinjal, ash gourds is coming up now. When I resorted to precision farming, I was a laughing stock of my neighbouring farmers who ridiculed my efforts to go in for drip irrigation when irrigation facility was abundant in the village. With fertigation technique _ irrigating water, mixed with water-soluble fertilisers under precision farming, which makes uniform availability of need-based water and fertiliser _ the yield is good and uniform. On seeing the quality of the vegetables, neighbouring farmers are now trying to go in for precision farming. I thank the Institute for introducing this technique,” Parthiban said.

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