The Agriculture Department has been able to resume cultivation in 39,000 acres of fallow land across the State in the past 36 months, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has said.
He was inaugurating a farmers’ meet at Nattukadavu, near Thiruvalla, as part of an ongoing project to revive cultivation in the Kaviyur puncha on Thursday.
The Minister said Kerala could achieve at least partial self-sufficiency in terms of rice production if the State succeeded in producing 10 lakh tonnes of paddy a year.
He said the department had been providing very good support to the farmers for reviving cultivation in fallow lands. The farmers were given ₹30,000 and seeds for every hectare of fallow land brought under cultivation, he said.
Mr. Sunil Kumar said the government had disbursed flood relief to 90% of the affected farmers in the district.
Higher support price
He said the government had been providing support price of ₹25.30 a kg to paddy against the ₹17.30 given by various other States in the country.
Mr. Sunil Kumar said the department was planning to produce an additional 35,000 tonne of paddy from Kuttanad by launching cultivation in an additional 7,000 ha this year.
Kaviyur puncha
The Minister said the Kaviyur puncha spread across 800 acres had been made arable after a gap of 23 years.
Mathew T. Thomas, MLA, presided.
Cherian Polachirackal, municipal chairman; Sosamma Thomas, Mallappally block panchayat president; Elizabeth Mathew, Kaviyur grama panchayat president; K.K. Radhakrishna Kurup, Kunnamthanam grama panchayat president; Reji Thomas, district panchayat member; A.P. Jayan, CPI district secretary; R. Rajesh, Haritha Keralam Mission district co-ordinator, spoke.
