THANJAVUR: With the delayed release of water from Mettur dam for samba irrigation, farmers are planning to sow medium-term and short-term paddy varieties in the samba and thaladi season, and have urged the Agriculture Department to provide seeds free of cost or at least with a subsidy, at the earliest.
Delta farmers usually cultivate long-term paddy varieties such as CR 1009 and ADT 51 which are of 150-155 days duration. CR1009 variety is also tolerant to submergence in floodwater and ADT 51 has high milling recovery. However, farmers said they can no longer afford to raise such long-term varieties.
V Mariappan, a farmer from Pulavankadu said, “We need medium-term varieties like ADT 39, CO-43 which are of 120-135 days duration. These varieties were introduced more than 10 years ago and are not eligible for subsidy. Taking into consideration the delayed release of water, the government should supply these seeds free of cost, or at least with subsidy.”
While farmers like R Sukumaran of Kakkarai near Orathanadu also demanded supply of medium-term varieties like IR -20, TPS 5, those like P Sukumaran of Tirupponthurthi said water level in Mettur dam would be insufficient to raise even these varieties.
“We need at least 95 tmcft of water from the dam in addition to 35 tmcft of rainwater during north east monsoon to complete samba cultivation. However, water level at the dam currently stands only at 50 tmcft now, considering 5 tmcft of dead storage,” he said.
Farmers might be forced to cultivate short-term varieties like ADT 36, ADT-53, ADT-43 and ADT-45, and the government should stock seeds of these varieties, Sukumaran added.
Officials of the Agriculture Department are hopeful of meeting the demands of farmers. They said seed requirement is around 3,000 tonnes for an expected samba and thaladi coverage of 1.25 lakh hectares in Thanjavur district. As of now, Agriculture Extension Centres of the government have a stock of 1,334 tonnes.
Of these, 327 tonnes are medium-term varieties and 195 tonnes are short-term varieties. Indents have also been placed with other districts for 100 tonnes of medium-term varieties.
Private traders have 1,820 tonnes of seeds, of which medium-term varieties account for 800 tonnes and short-term varieties 500 tonnes, officials added.
In Tiruvarur district, coverage is expected to be 1.46 lakh hectares and 798 tonnes of medium-term variety seeds and 189 tonnes of short-term variety seeds are currently in stock. Besides, 200 tonnes have been sought from other districts.
Water level in Mettur dam on Wednesday stood at 91.9 feet (54.89 tmcft). The inflow was recorded as 10,288 cusecs and outflow 4,918 cusecs.