After almost a decade, Madurai district has recorded a good rainfall of 440 mm up to July this year — almost double the average of 262 mm recorded during the same period in the past 10 years.
“Such heavy rain in this part of the year is unprecedented. We are confident of achieving our coverage and production targets,” said Sarnath Babu, Joint Director of Agriculture (in-charge). Following the heavy rain, oilseeds, gingelly in particular, pulses and cotton had been raised in more fields this year. “If the rainfall is good in the first week of September, it will be a blessing for farmers who cultivate maize, as otherwise they will switch over to cotton. We have fixed a target area of 5,700 hectares for cotton and expect a production of more than 13,400 tonnes if there is good rain,” an official said.
Stating that unlike last year timely release of water for ‘kuruvai’ crop too had yielded good results, Mr. Babu said that the good rain, combined with water release, had helped farmers who were dependent on rain for irrigation, reap good results.
Paddy farmers said that they were worried about absence of rain in April. “While the rain was initially good, it was not so in later months. We have just raised saplings and in another 15 days they will be ready for re-planting. We hope that the rain picks up,” said Sonaiyya, a farmer in Alanganallur.
Targets fixed While the Department of Agriculture has fixed the target area for paddy at 62,100 hectares, same as last year, a good jump is seen in the target area for pulses — from 10,893 hectares to 12,561 hectares. “We are promoting special schemes for cultivation of red gram, which has been raised on 2,880 hectares, far higher than black gram, green gram, horse gram, Bengal gram and cow pea,” said Mr. Babu. While the total production of pulses had only been 1.84 lakh tonnes so far, a high target of 3.18 lakh tonnes had been fixed for the current year, he added.
Gandhimathi, Block Technology Manager, Madurai West, said that agriculture officials were helping farmers through SMS alerts on technology inputs. “We inform them about machinery they can procure, seasonal threats to their crops from pests and diseases and prescribe solutions,” she said.
Krishi Vigyan Kendra sends round-the-clock weather updates to registered farmers.
