Fallow land across the State to be brought under cultivation: Minister

The government is committed to launching cultivation in the entire extent of cultivable land that has been lying fallow across the State, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has said.

Mr. Sunil Kumar told The Hindu at Thiruvalla on Friday that the Agriculture Department had identified 97,000 hectares of cultivable paddy land lying fallow in the State.

He said cultivation had already been launched in 5,967 ha this year and steps had been taken to launch cultivation in another 10,000 ha in 2017.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would be launching cultivation in 746 acres of paddy land at Avalappandi in Cheruvannur panchayat on December 3.

The Minister said reviving traditional paddy cultivation in Wayanad was another major mission taken up by the government.

He said the tribespeople in Wayanad used to cultivate traditional varieties of paddy such as thondu, paalthondu, jeerakasaala, gandhakasaala, Wayanadan karuva, and so on in their paddy fields. But, lack of governmental support in the past had forced them to switch over to coconut and plantain farming, leading to depletion of the groundwater table in due course of time, he said.

Now, with the government extending support to the traditional paddy varieties, the tribes people had come forward to revive paddy cultivation in Wayanad, he said.

Mr. Sunil Kumar said the government had prepared an action plan to launch cultivation of traditional paddy varieties in 3,000 ha in the next one year.

Traditional paddy varieties will be farmed in 3,000 ha in a year.

V.S. Sunil Kumar