Pearl millet (cumbu) cultivators in the district have been keeping their fingers crossed following poor yield and fall in quality of the produce this season due to scanty rainfall and depletion of groundwater table.
The crop is raised mainly in clusters of villages in and around Thuraiyur, Marungapuri, Vaiyampartti, Manapparai, Uppliyapuram and Musiri and the normal area under cultivation is 800 hectares.
Agriculture Department officials said that most farmers had raised ‘CoCu9’ in these villages with a duration of 110 days. The average per hectare yield should be three tonnes but this year the yield was just one tonne.
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A cross-section of farmers of Vadakkipatti near Puliyancholai said that cumbu was an irrigated crop in their fields. Sekar, one of the farmers, said that he had raised it on an acre. Though the growth of the crop was appreciable in the initial phase, the crop health was affected subsequently due to inadequate water. M. Chandrasekaran, another farmer, said that most farmers had incurred huge expenditure on pest control. The sudden depletion in the water table in their wells had proved a severe blow to them.
Although they were keeping a close surveillance on the growth of the plants, it was far below normal in the last leg. The harvest would be one-third of his normal harvest, the farmers said. Farmers said that they used the Tiruchi – Uppilliyapuram highway as the thrashing floor for the produce. They urged the district administration to conduct a survey on the cumbu fields and sanction adequate relief.