Groundnut cultivation is poised to come back in a big way in the eastern part of Palakkad district.
Farmers in Eruthenpathy, Vadakarapathy and Kozhinjampara panchayats have increasingly turned to groundnut cultivation. But they are using the traditional tilling method by hiring bulls from neighbouring places in Tamil Nadu.
Farmers say ploughing the land with bulls will give them better yield than the mechanised ploughs. Agriculture Department officials too have extended full support to recapturing the traditional farming method.
Farming protocol
Abdul Khader, agriculture assistant at Eruthenpathy, has prepared a complete traditional farming protocol to help groundnut farmers in the region. Shaktivel in Ward 1 one of Eruthenpathy grama panchayat says he is returning to groundnut using traditional ploughing with bulls after 30 years.
He has sown the groundnut seeds in one-and-a-half-acre land with black soil and used about 40 kg of seed for one acre. Although the seed cost him about ₹100 a kg, Mr. Shaktivel is hopeful that the traditional farming method will bring him a better yield. The groundnut brings up to ₹50 a kg in the market.
According to him, one acre farmland used to give a yield of up to 45 sackfuls of groundnut with each sack weighing about 75 kg. In other words, one acre would give a yield of 3,375 kg groundnut.
“Using the traditional tilling method with bulls, we expect to get an additional yield of up to 750 kg,” says Mr. Shaktivel. Mr. Khader says that using the traditional plough with bulls, the farmer would get the advantage of deeper planting of the seed. With deeper rooting, he says, the moisture of the soil could be retained for about a month. The seed will sprout on the eighth day. After a month, deseeding has to be done. After two months, farmers will apply gypsum to control the alkalinity of the soil. Groundnut becomes ready for harvest by the 90th day.
Organic manure
Farmers are using organic manure for groundnut. One acre land is prepared by applying five tractor load of cattle manure. One tractor load of manure costs ₹3,500. The farmers will also get the government subsidy under the location specific scheme.
Officials say farmers had abandoned the traditional method because of various factors, including difficulty in maintaining the bulls.
