Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Paddy farmers hope for bumper harvest

Promising crop: Paddy raised in Sundarapuri, near Nathakadaiyur, under the new ‘System of Rice Intensification’ is in good condition.

ERODE: “I will do only this type of cultivation even if you ordered me not to do so, said D.Gnanasampandam of Sundarapuri village near Nathakadiyur to The Hindu recently.

The farmer who has cultivated paddy year after year in his field said that he was hesitating to take up this System of Rice Intensification (SRI) initially when the official of the Agriculture Department approached him and told him about the benefits of adopting the modern method.

The Agriculture Department explained to him the new system and its benefits to farmers.

It was with a great deal of reluctance he finally took up the SRI method of paddy cultivation in his field.

“However, after doing this I felt this is the ideal practice to follow regularly,” he said.

“The labourers who took up paddy transplanting on contract basis were not easily convinced to plant single seedlings in the SRI recommended marker method.

“But anyhow I have managed to complete the process, which now gives me plenty of satisfaction,” he added.

The seedlings that had been planted in ‘line planting’ with the spacing of 20 x10 cm came up well and gave the desired number of tillers, causing the farmer to gain a measure confidence in the new method of cultivation.

He said, “Two important practices I have followed keenly are planting of 13- to 16-day-old seedlings in ‘line planting’ and use of ‘cona weeder’ in the appropriate period.

This process enables the plant to produce maximum tillering.

“In my I.R.20 field, which is now almost in the flowering stage, we can see 35 numbers of productive tillers at an average. The pest and disease incidences are also very low and it reduced my spraying cost also,” he noted.

The farmer is anticipating a bumper harvest in his SRI field.

The Joint Director of Agriculture Erode S.Somasundaram, who has inspected the field, recently told The Hindu that other farmers in this area were willingly coming forward to adopt this practice after seeing the difference in crop, compared to that cultivated in the non-SRI field.

The Assistant Director of Agriculture Kangayam A.Prabakaran said that due to the larger space provided among the plants built up the population of beneficial insects and it was possible to see more spiders in the SRI field.

He said that he was confident that Gnanasampandam would now go for SRI planting only.

This would automatically induce other farmers of the area to silently follow in his footsteps.

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