Agriculture officials told to ensure unform yield

Says laboratory to land solutions will be of help

State Agriculture Commissioner Sandeep Saxena interacting with officials and a farmer during a field visit in Madurai.

State Agriculture Commissioner Sandeep Saxena has asked officials to find out why there was a difference in yield from fields of farmers and close the gap by providing them the right solutions.

Presiding over a meeting of senior officials of the Agriculture Department from southern districts at the Agriculture College and Research Institute here on Wednesday, he said that even when climatic conditions remained the same in a given location there were difference in yield of farmers. “The field staff should meet farmers and find the reasons for the difference and take corrective steps to help bring uniformity in output,” he added.

There might be various reasons for difference in yield between States and districts, but there cannot be variation in an area with same climatic condition, he said and urged the officials to study the reasons By sustained education, targets could also be achieved with ease and gaps narrowed down.

The experts in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University could be utilised for analysing the reasons. Probably, transfer of knowledge in a consultative manner from laboratory to land might help bring in solutions, Mr. Saxena said.

The members were also informed about plans to issue handbooks to farmers in the State, which would contain details ranging from subsidies received, crops cultivated, use of fertilizers, water sources and yield particulars, among others.

Field visit

According to officials, Mr. Saxena visited e-choupal, a centre established at Arasanoor in Sivaganga district, which acts as a catalyst to farmers and disseminates information on various areas such as seed quality and marketing avenues. He witnessed a live demonstration of sugarcane harvester.

At Vinayagapuram in Madurai district, he interacted with a group of farmers from Tiruvarur district, who were being taught techniques to drain water-logged paddy fields. Mr. Saxena visited the State seed farm and inaugurated a vermi-compost unit. A progressive farmer at Kodikulam explained the features of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) procedure. He appealed to the farmers to grow more pulses.

The Additional Director (Government of India Schemes, Chennai) T. Gopalakrishnan, Joint Director (Agriculture) P. Sankaralingam, Deputy Director Sampath Kumar, Assistant Director (Madurai East Block) S. Kanagaraj among others participated in the meeting.