Agriculture department is conducting crop yield competitions for pulses to select farmers who have taken the maximum yield of black gram in Thanjavur district, to offer them first and second prizes both at the district and State levels.
One of the competitors for district level prize is Sundaram Iyer of Maharajapuram near Thiruvaiyaru. He has raised black gram on 10 acres of land. Sundaram Iyer said that ADT5 variety of black gram was the most suited variety for Chithirai Pattam ie pulses raised during April and May with irrigated water. "We can take atleast 1000 kilos per acre and income for the farmer is nearly Rs.45, 000 per acre if the expenditure of Rs.7000 is deducted" said Sundaram Iyer.
Black gram on one acre of his land was harvested and weighed for the competition on Friday. Rama Thyagarajan and Arcot Sundaram, two farmers selected as judges by the government for the competition assessed the yield in the presence of P.Loganathan, Joint Director of Agriculture, Kaliyaperumal, Personal Assistant to district collector (Agriculture), R.Raghunathan, Deputy Director, Central Schemes, S.Eashwar, Agriculture officer, state schemes, K.Pandiyarajan, Assistant Director of Agriculture and Radha, Agriculture Officer, Thiruvaiyaru.
Dry plants with pods were taken and weighed as a bunch. Then a tractor was used to separate the grain by moving on the plants. Later the grains were weighed to find out the yield. Mr.Loganathan said the yield will be noted down and compared with other such crop yield competitions held in five more places earlier to select the winner. Similar competitions were held in the field of other farmers - Adhavan of Nagachi Village Vijayakumar, of Kudananal Santhosh, a farmer of Pazhamaneri, all from Budalur taluk. Krishnamurthy of Arumulai in Orathanadu taluk and Mariappan of Pulavankadu in Orathanadu taluk.
District level and state level winners will be selected from these farmers and also from those who raise pulses in December this year. The prizes are for the year 2010-11.
Loganathan said that the first prize for pulses for district level was Rs. 10,000, second prize Rs. 5,000. For state level it is Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 10,000.
Crop yield competitions will be conducted for Kuruvai paddy also this year and prizes distributed. For paddy the first prize was Rs.15,000, second prize Rs.10,000 at the district level and Rs.25,000 and Rs.15,000 at the state level.
All that the farmers have to do for participating in the competition is to register them with the agriculture department by paying Rs. 25 for district level and Rs.50 for state level. The JDA appealed to the farmers to participate in the competition by doing high tech cultivation of crops.
