KOCHI: The ambitious plan put forth by the Ernakulam district administration to cultivate various crops on nearly 300 hectares of barren land left idle in the district is moving in the right direction.
So far, 140 hectares of barren land has been converted to agriculture fields according to the report submitted by the Agriculture Department at the district-level review meeting of Haritha Keralam Mission which is implementing the project.
"In comparison to other districts, Ernakulam is showcasing a very good result in implementing the projects under the Haritha Kerala mission. It is good that they are moving towards their target. It is interesting to find they have carried out paddy cultivation in most of the land," said Haritha Keralam vice chairperson T N Seema who chaired the review meeting at the civil station on Thursday. District panchayat president Asha Sanil, deputy planning officer Anitha Elias and Haritha Keralam district co-ordinator Sujith Karun also attended the meeting.
In addition to the 140 hectares of barren land where they have started cultivation, the district administration last year too had made nearly 240 hectares of land cultivable. "Over 11 km of Kadambrayar river bank was cleaned up with the effort of the District Collector and the local people," said Seema.
"The same kind of enthusiasm is also seen in other parts of the district. These spirit shown by the public and officers will be a boost for carrying out agriculture activities in the district. So far we have set up 113 nurseries for distributing various saplings. We hope to plant around 15 lakh saplings and for this, we have cultivated 3 lakh plants. The saplings will be planted in various places in the district soon."
Seema also urged local bodies to take come up with comprehensive proposals for waste treatment that can be implemented under the mission. Meanwhile, Clean Kerala Company managing director Kabeer B Haroon said the procedure to complete resource recovery facility is moving in full swing. "The district is moving to achieve a zero waste tag with the disposal of used bulbs and tubes. It is moving at a rapid phase," said Haroon.