Kerala mulls declaration of Southern districts as drought hit

August 21, 2009 08:33 pm | Updated 08:34 pm IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

The Agriculture Minister, Mullakkara Ratnakaran, said on Friday that the Kerala Cabinet was considering declaration of the Southern districts of the State as drought hit.

The Minister said in his address to the conference of Agriculture Ministers in New Delhi that rainfall in the southern districts was deficient by 25 per cent to 48 per cent. They were already facing mild drought.

Mr. Ratnakaran said that the area under paddy during the main virippu season had come down by 20 per cent in five districts because of drought. The paddy production had dropped by 15 per cent. The conditions of other crops were also not different.

He said that many had got the impression that there was no drought in Kerala because of the heavy rains and floods in some northern districts in July on account of climate change. Urgent intervention by the Centre was needed to help the State to face the impacts of drought and climate change.

The Minister also urged that the Centre should offer a relief package to save the farmers of the State from the impact of free trade agreement with ASEAN nations. A meeting of Ministers and members of Parliament should be convened urgently to discuss the issue.

Mr. Ratnakaran also called for sanctioning of irrigation projects on the Kabani basin and Meppayyur in Kozhikode district as part of measures to mitigate the effect of climate change. Micro irrigation projects should be taken up on a war-footing. The Centre should sanction 90 per cent subsidy for them. It should also provide Rs. 60 crore to resume paddy cultivation and vegetable cultivation in fields that are remaining fallow. The small and medium farmers should be provided with 50 per cent subsidy for using ground water sources. The Food Security Programme, being implemented in Palakkad district, should be extended to the kole fields of Thrissur and Ponnani and the Pokkali fields of Ernakulam district.

A study centre on climate change should be sanctioned for Kuttanad, and special programmes should be devised to assist farmers affected by climate change. Fund sunder the Kuttanad and Idukki packages should be released urgently. Coconut should be declared as oilseed.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.