While urging farmers to follow the advice of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University to assuage the impact of heat on standing crops, a micro irrigation expert has appealed to the agriculturists to switch over to drip irrigation to save the crops while getting a decent yield with the available water.
The extreme heat prevailing across Tamil Nadu always results in increased transpiration rates, which ultimately lowers the amount of water available to crops, leading to water stress. The prevailing temperature in the region - 102.4 degree Fahrenheit and above - would significantly affect the crop yields, especially annual crops like food crops, vegetables, flower crops, etc.
“It is high time the farmers switched over to drip irrigation and Tamil Nadu government should also relax subsidy norms without waiting for the Election Code of Conduct to cease. Besides, the norms for relaying of drip system should also be relaxed from the existing seven years to five years as high temperature might have damaged the pipes which would have also clogged with salt deposits. Secondly, farmers should be encouraged to insure their crops forecasting the yield loss due to the high temperature at least in the districts recording unusually high temperatures,” according to S. Raja Mohamed, a retired Joint Director of Horticulture and an expert in micro irrigation techniques.
Agriculture officials agree that the drip irrigation system would be effective in saving the crops from present heat waves while admitting that there was no scope for relaxing the subsidy norms for installing micro irrigation systems in the fields unless the State government takes a policy decision in this connection.
“While the farmers get insurance benefits for crop loss due to floods and drought, the scope for getting insurance benefits for loss in yield due to heat wave should also be included by the insurance firms,” they say.
While advocating the need for developing heat-tolerant crops or transgenic food crops that can assure desirable yield and food security for future generations, Mr. Mohamed suggests that the TNAU’s advice on dealing with high temperature stress in different crops like paddy, banana, vegetables, groundnut, sugarcane, etc., would be effective in assuaging the heat stress on crops.
