Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

SRI raises productivity in Tiruchi

PHOTO: R.M.RAJARATHINAM

READY: Paddy crop nearing harvest at Mannachanallur near Tiruchi. —

TIRUCHI: With the ‘System of Rice Intensification’ (SRI) gaining popularity in the wake of its higher productivity and lesser cultivation costs, the paddy-growers of Tiruchi district have brought a large area of the crop under the SRI technique this season.

Out of 63,000 hectares brought under the ‘samba’ crop during the just-concluded season, a total of 20,000 hectares had been brought under SRI, against just 15,000 hectares achieved during the last season.

Agriculture Department officials say that the varieties cultivated included the ‘Improved White Ponni’; BPT-5204 popularly known as ‘Andhra Ponni’; ASD-18; ASD-19 and ASD-20, all standing for the Ambasamudram varieties.

A large number of farmers in and around Mannachanallur, who raised the ‘Andhra Ponni’ variety and the farmers of Marungapuri and Vaiyampatti areas who cultivated the ‘ASD-19’ variety using the SRI technique, have registered a bumper harvest this season, Joint Director of Agriculture N. Ponnusamy told The Hindu here on Friday.

On the special initiatives taken by the Agriculture Department in popularising the SRI technique among farmers this season, the official said that as many as 210 clusters were formed in the 14 blocks in the district. Each cluster comprised 10 hectares. “We ensured that at least two village panchayats in every block were brought under the SRI this season,” he says. A sustained follow-up by the field officials of the Agriculture Department in imparting training to the SRI farmers on the utilisation of various equipment paid the dividends. “Last season, the farmers were not familiar with all the appliances; for instance, the farmers applied for either ‘Cono Weeder’ or ‘Marker.’ But, this season, they learnt the utility of both equipment,” he says.

The official said that a record yield of 12,700 kg has been registered in Marungapuri this season.

The November floods and torrential rains caused by the ‘Nisha’ cyclone has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the farmers of Marungapuri and Vaiyampatti blocks in Mannachanallur taluk. With the rise in the storage position, the farmers have prepared their fields to paddy during the successive ‘thaladi’ and ‘navarai’ seasons. “Normally, these farmers go in for cotton, maize, pulses during summer in the wake of less availability of irrigational waters. But the assured storage in tanks during the ‘Nisha’ cyclone, has brought about a shift in the cropping pattern in parts of Mannachanallur, Marungapuri and Vaiyampatti in the Mannachanallur taluk,” he said. The application of the SRI technique for these successive summer crops is yet another success of the efforts of the Agriculture Department, he added.

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