With farmers of the Cauvery delta raising paddy in over 2.2 lakh acres during the ongoing Kuruvai cultivation season, the authorities are hopeful that the target of 3.5 lakh acres will be met within this month.
As the nursery has been prepared for 2,263 acres, this will take care of transplanting the crop in over 1.14 lakh acres. Steps are on to cover the remaining 16,000 acres too, said a senior official of the Agriculture Department.
The rice production during the kuruvai season is expected to be around 6 lakh tonnes. If the coverage plan fructifies, this will be around 60,000 acres more than what the delta achieved last year.
Comfortable storage
The availability of water at Mettur dam, which is the lifeline for the Cauvery delta, is an important reason behind the optimism of the authorities.
On Wednesday, the dam had storage of 52.86 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft.) against the capacity of 93.47 tmcft. As of now, the discharge into the river was 10,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs). There have been demands from farmers and political parties for stepping up the discharge, and the government is expected to take a decision shortly.
Even though June saw a realisation of 6.2 tmcft at the Biligundlu measuring site on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, there is an expectation that the inflow will pick up momentum in the weeks to come when the southwest monsoon becomes vigorous over the Cauvery catchment areas in the neighbouring State and in Kerala.
The realisation during June was about three tmc ft short of Tamil Nadu’s quota for the month. In July, the State is expected to get 31.24 tmcft.
With regard to inputs, the situation is comfortable, the official pointed out. Apart from distributing about 3,800 tonnes of seeds, nearly 2,130 tonnes are available.
Likewise, in respect of fertilizer, the delta region has stock of about 1 lakh tonnes, which is three times the requirement.
Farmers in the tail of the Cauvery system have been advised to go in for salt tolerant and shorter duration varieties than normal, the official said.
