KOCHI: The state government is planning to launch a new farming system which will help in maintaining the organic nature of the topsoil and address the impact of climate change. Announcing the decision here while speaking at the annual general meeting of the Association of Planters of Kerala, Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar on Monday said the government’s priority is to conserve the organic content of the soil and increase production. He said the new farming system would be implemented before March next year. He said Kerala would be divided into five agro-ecological zones and the soil-based crop pattern would be implemented.
Speaking on the occasion, Association of Planters chairman B P Kariappa said future plantations need to be converted to multi-crop farming and legislation is needed for this. “Steps should be taken to expand the definition of plantation crops in the Kerala Land Reforms Act from time to time. The land utilisation order impedes the possibility of plantations moving from one plantation crop to another.
The Land Utilisation Act of 1960 is outdated and detrimental to the state’s agricultural development,” he urged the minister.“The fragile ecosystems of Western Ghats are exposed to ill-planned developmental activities for nearly two decades. It is rapidly killing the agricultural and forest ecology of the Western Ghats,” he added.