Paddy cultivation will be revived on December 1 in 1,200 acre of fallow land in and around Kottayam town, said V.S. Sunil Kumar, Minister for Agriculture, on Tuesday.
Addressing a farmers’ meet at Manarcadu, Mr. Sunil Kumar said that this initiative, which was being taken up as a follow-up to the ongoing relinking and revival of the Meenachil-Meenanthara-Kodoor rivers, will be in fallow paddy fields spread over Pampady, Ayarkunnam, and Vijayapuram grama panchayats.
This effort would need ₹2.97 crore and the first cache of ₹40 lakh has already been sanctioned, he said. The State government is moving ahead with the decision to declare Kottayam a ‘no fallow land’ district within two years, the Minister said. However, this needs the cooperation and involvement of the elected representatives and various departments, he said.
He also said that the government would establish a Karshika Karma Sena comprising at least 25 people as a strategy to overcome the acute shortage of farmhands.
Later, inaugurating the sowing of paddy in the 210-acre polder at Kollad, Mr. Sunil Kumar said the initiative in the revival of paddy cultivation in fallow land taken up by the State government received healthy popular support. The Minister also pointed out that the life of the rivers and rivulets and that of paddy cultivation was mutually dependent. As such revival of paddy cultivation means reviving an ailing nature, he said.
