The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : SRI technology to help boost paddy production

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 19, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

SRI technology to help boost paddy production

Special Correspondent

State achieved record yield in the last financial year

Veerapandi S.Arumugam

CHENNAI: The State government will take a series of measures to achieve the agricultural production target in the current financial year.

These include adoption of system of rice intensification (SRI) technology, promotion of precision farming and micro irrigation, restoration of soil health, supply of quality seeds to farmers and distribution of farm machineries.

The targets for various crops are: paddy 80.60 lakh tonnes, millets 23 lakh tonnes, pulses 6.90 lakh tonnes, oilseeds 17.50 lakh tonnes and sugar cane 472.50 lakh tonnes.

According to the policy note on agriculture placed in the Assembly on Thursday by Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam, farmers in the State achieved record paddy production in the last financial year using the SRI technique. The yield was 13.7 tonnes per hectare in Salem district, 12.5 tonnes in Tiruchi district, and 11.24 tonnes in Tiruvarur district.

Enthused by the success of the technique, the government this year would take steps to cover 7.5 lakh hectares under it. More attention would be given for perfecting the technology to achieve higher production. Steps would be taken to conduct demonstrations so as to cover 50,000 hectares through various schemes.

Seeds supply

As the productivity of crops basically depended on quality of seeds, the government had taken various steps to ensure availability of quality seeds to farmers through public and private seed production and distribution system. During the current year, 18,000 tonnes of paddy seeds, 450 tonnes of millets, 2,500 tonnes of pulses, 6,386 tonnes of oil seeds and 175 tonnes of cotton seeds would be produced and distributed to farmers.

The note stated that a long-felt demand of agricultural graduates had been accepted by the government and Tamil Nadu was the first State to establish an Agri Council. It would provide recommendations for agriculture development besides playing a major role in providing quality inputs, technologies, post-harvest management and processing activities. A draft bill would be placed in the Assembly for approval.

As sugar industry had emerged as a vehicle for rural economic transformation, the government had decided to establish nine new integrated sugar complexes. Three projects, one each at Erode, Ariyalur, and Gingee had been completed and the rest would commence their crushing operations during the current 2009-10 season.

The government had demarcated cane areas for the new mills, which would have facilities of cogeneration, distillery, ethanol, production, tissue culture lab, and bio-composing facility. These mills would bring their entire areas under drip fertigation within a span of five years, the note added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu