Disappointed that their demand for drought relief remains unheard, farmers wanted Members of Parliament (MP) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Vellore district to attend the farmers’ grievance meeting and visit drought-affected areas to take forward their long-pending demand to the government.
Poor rainfall has left farmers in Vellore a worried lot. At the monthly grievance meeting on Friday, Raghupathy, a farmer, said the MPs and MLAs should come for the meeting to take forward their plea. This was highlighted during the last month’s meeting too, he noted.
“At every meeting, officials say that the need to provide drought relief has been recommended and sent to the State government. But nothing has happened,” he said.
Another farmer, Loganathan, said water sources such as ponds and forests have gone dry without rains in the last 15 years. “Now, ground water is available only after digging for nearly 1,000 feet. There is acute shortage of drinking water. We have organised several protests demanding relief,” he said. A protest was being organised at the end of the month. He urged the MPs and MLAs to visit drought-affected areas and take it forward to the State government.
Collector R. Nanthagopal said communication was being sent to all regarding conduct of the farmers grievance meetings.
Replying to the farmers, Joint Director of Agriculture, Vellore R. Jayasundar said they have sent proposals to the government stating the problems faced by the farmers and damage to crops such as coconut trees due to poor rainfall.
“We have put forward the issue to the agricultural production commissioner during a meeting in Chennai too,” he added.
He also said that farmers could cultivate crops such as “cholam” that required only three months and those like “thinai”, “kudiraivaali” and “samai” that were value addition to farmers. “These crops fetch good profits and are also good for health,” he said.
A.C. Venkatesan, another farmer, urged the Collector to take steps to implement the Thenpennai-Palar link project, which was being stalled by a few farmers in Krishnagiri.
Opposition to tobacco cultivation
Perumal Reddiar, a farmer, said that tobacco cultivation could be taken up on a trial basis following an exposure visit.
However, scientists of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra said tobacco cultivation was not suitable for the district due to water scarcity and climatic conditions.
Many farmers who were present in the meeting raised their dissent to tobacco cultivation.
Thirty farmers – three each from 10 blocks in the district – received prizes for adopting new technologies and fetching high yield of crops on the occasion.
The ‘model’ farmers received Rs. 10,000 each for adopting new techniques in the departments of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and sericulture under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency schemes at Vellore, Anaicut, Gudiyatham, Madhanur, Pernambut, Alangayam, Jolarpet, Natrampalli, Kandhili and Arcot blocks.
Ponds and forests have gone dry without rains in the last 15 years, say farmers
