Farmers need to make an effort to increase the area under cultivation for pulses and its productivity using multi-pronged strategy to achieve targets, Agriculture Minister R. Duraikannu said at Melattur near here on Sunday.
Participating in a Pulses Field Day and Kuruvai Package 2016 popularisation programme organised jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University at Melattur, Mr. Duraikannu said the country had achieved five times higher foodgrains production, nine times higher horticulture production, 13 times higher fish production, eight fold improvement in milk production, and 39 fold increase in egg production. “But we have lagged to a great extent in pulses production,” he said.
The Minister underlined that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation had declared 2016 as the year of pulses to popularise the virtues of pulses ad its essential role in maintaining the health of people. In line with that, farmers need to adopt recent technologies, mechanised farming options, choose appropriate seed varieties, water management, integrated pest management weed management, nutrition management, and above all concerted attention to the crop to achieve increased productivity in pulses crops, Mr. Duraikannu said.
In particular, the delta farmers could go in for good varieties of black gram for raising that as a cash crop with low input cost and high returns. Delta farmers could make use of the State Government’s kuruvai package to raise paddy in areas where sub surface water could be tapped, he said.
Farmers in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Ariyalur, Cuddalore, and Tiruchi stand to benefit from the Kuruvai package for which the State Government has sanctioned Rs. 54.65 crore, he added.
District Collector N. Subbaiyan presided over the programme in which Mayiladuthurai MP R.K. Bharathi Mohan, Pulses Special Committee Member P.N. Vedanarayanan, Kumbakonam Sub Collector M. Govinda Rao, Vice-Chancellor of the TNAU K. Ramasamy, and Joint Director of Agriculture (in charge) Srinivasan participated.
