The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Drip irrigation boon for Polur cane cultivators

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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Drip irrigation boon for Polur cane cultivators

A.D. Balasubramaniyan

Average yield is 48 tonnes per acre against 33 tonnes from conventional system

— Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

FARMERS’ delight: The drip irrigation system installed on a sugar cane field at Polur in Tiruvannamalai district.

Tiruvannamalai: Sugar cane, a crop that usually needs a lot of water, thrives well and gives better yield with less water in Polur region, thanks micro irrigation system.

Though installing micro irrigation system for sugar cane involves heavy investment, governmental subsidy, advantages in cultivation and higher yields attract higher number of cane farmers towards this technique.

“Sugar cane crop on 485 acres in Polur Dharani Sugarmills region have come under micro irrigation system. Last year, 300 acres that came under the technique yielded good harvest. While the average yeild in conventionally irrigated fields is 33 tonnes per acre, fields using drip irrigation yield an average of 48 tonnes per acre,” said M.Raju, senior cane manager, Dharani Sugar Mills. “We want to get 70 tonnes from an acre,” he added.

T. Poovaiah, Assistat Director of Agricuture, Polur, said the government provides 50 per cent subsidy out of installation costs. “It also provides a range of inputs at subsidised rates or free of cost. Drip fertication (water soluble fertilizers), which can be uniformly fed to crops through drip irrigation pipleline, is provided at 50 per cent subsidised rate. Seed materials are distributed free of cost during the first year. Apart from subsidies, the farmer enjoys benefits such as higher yield and less labour costs under the micro irrigation system,” Mr. Poovaiah said.

Water required to irrigate one acre of sugar cane crop under the conventional irrigation could be used to irrigate three acres under the micro irrigation system, he added.

Cane farmers, who installed micro irrigation facility, uniformly expressed happiness over higher yield and less water requirement. S. Kannan, a farmer of Alli Nagar, Polur, said that all plants located in different parts of the fields were fed uniformly and the whole field was uniformly wet. Though he could not compare the yield as this was the first crop for him after the installation of micro irrigation facility, he was happy that the growth was better.

K. Krishnamurthy, another farmer from Alli Nagar, said that there was no requirement to do mulching in the micro irrigated land. “We can cultivate 10 acres of sugarcane if we can assure five hours of water supply every day under the micro irrigation system,” he said.

K. Annamalai, a retired police officer practising agriculture, said that but for micro irrigation, his seven-month crop would not have grown so well.

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