Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Rain brings hope in delta but direct sowing only way out

By S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI AUG. 5. Widespread rain in delta districts for the past few weeks has given hope to farmers there.

In the absence of water release from the Mettur reservoir, the rain will be beneficial to the standing kuruvai paddy crop raised on about 38,000 hectares and to alternative crops on another 55,000 hectares in the composite Thanjavur district.

The farmers are confident of saving the crops, besides getting a good yield.

The Agriculture department has advised the farmers to go for dry ploughing and prepare the land for samba, making the best use of the recent rain. The precipitation during this part of the year is more than what was recorded last year.

As the storage level in the reservoir may not be sufficient to meet samba irrigation needs fully, the farmers will have no alternative to go in for direct sowing. For this, dry ploughing after a spell of rain will be helpful, reducing water requirement.

Keeping the land ready for samba cultivation, the farmers could go for direct sowing once they get water from either the reservoir or the northeast monsoon, with the available water in the dam and possible northeast monsoon rain, it may be possible to raise samba.

A similar situation prevailed in 1987, when farmers took to direct sowing and reaped a reasonably good yield. The same strategy could be adopted now, says a government official.

The farmers say the Government should try to build up the storage in the reservoir to make water available for samba.

As kuruvai cultivation is almost over, water should not be released as the farmers have raised the crop at their risk. For samba also, water release from the reservoir should be judiciously planned, say the farmers.

Meanwhile, the receipts in the Mettur dam, are slowly increasing, thanks to water release from the Kabini reservoir, which is almost full. The farmers hope that heavy rain in catchment areas of the Cauvery would further increase the inflow into the reservoir in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the condition of kuruvai on about 14,000 hectares and the alternative crops of gingili, sunflower, vegetables and blackgram in Thanjavur district is reported to be good. Another 1,500 hectares is to be brought under kuruvai in the next one week.

In Tiruvarur district, about 5,500 hectares was covered under paddy and in Nagapattinam 16,515 hectares. The coverage under dry crops was 2,767 and 1,837 hectares respectively in Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts, officials said.

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