Samba cultivation has picked up in Thanjavur district. With adequate water available in the rivers and canals, coupled with rain at night, farmers are busy in samba cultivation. Transplantation of samba seedlings is going on in the district.
According to Agriculture Department officials, transplantation has been completed on 32,000 hectares of land. Direct sowing has been taken up on 1,200 hectares of land.
Of the total cultivated area, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has been done on 10,000 hectares of land.
Direct sowing and SRI methods are followed as water efficient way of cultivation. In direct sowing, seeds are sown and allowed to sprout.
There is not transplantation. In SRI method, seedlings are prepared on mats. Seedlings will be ready in one week in the mats in SRI method and they are transplanted on the fields. In conventional method of cultivation, it will take one month for preparing seedlings. Water need will be more.
“Farmers have gone mostly for CR1009 variety of samba paddy. It is the long duration crop which has a maturity time of 160 days. Next to CR1009, farmers have raised ADT38, ADT39. In Budalur area, farmers have raised CO-43 also,” said the officials.
The plan this year is to raise samba on 1,18,000 hectares of land. “We hope to achieve the target,” the officials said.
In Tiruvarur district, direct sowing has been done on 70,000 hectares of land while transplantation has been completed on 11,500 hectares.
The target is 1,30,000 hectares of land and the officials are confident of meeting the target.