Farmers who have planted garden vegetables such as ‘Sembu’ alias ‘Seppan Kizhangu’ (Colocasia) on the outskirts of Vellore town have had to cut short their crop duration to save them from withering.
This was the prevaling situation in other places like Kaniyambadi, Keezh Aransangkuppam, Munjurthoppu, Palamadai, Kulavaimedu and Vaniyankulam.
Farmers in these region depend wholly on their lands and they have been trying several methods to protect their crops, but with water resources drying up and rains failing, quite often they ended up in penury.
Many small farmers have sowed either ‘Seppan Kizhangu’ or ‘Manjal’ (turmeric) in their lands, but their success rate has been less than 20 per cent.
Tulasi, a farmer from Kulavaimedu, had harvested ‘Seppan Kizhangu’ along with his family members. He says that the crop was sowed after Pongal in ‘Thai’ month and had to be harvested in mid-June.
With no rains in sight, the crops have withered and the ‘kizhangu’ spoiled further. So, he decided to harvest the crop in advance to prevent further damage.
Tulasi said an acre of Calocasia crop would normally yield 50-60 bags. But this time he had to be satisfied with about 15 bags. This too would get reduced by the time it reaches the market in a day or two, he said.
This is not an isolated case in the region. Many farmers had the same kind of incident to narrate. According to State Horticulture department sources, the crop grows well in loamy soils and a combination of warm and moist climate with a mean temperature of 21-27 degrees Celsius. It can be grown up to 1,500 m elevation with well distributed rainfall of about 1,000 mm during growth period. In areas where rainfall is less, a good amount of supplementary irrigation is required for successful production, they said.
However, if farmers approach us, we are ready to help them to reap good harvest with short-term crops, they added.
