THANJAVUR: With samba and thaladi harvesting work remaining to be taken up only on around 500 hectares, farmers in the district have commenced summer paddy cultivation, with about 5,300 hectares so far coming under the short-term crop cultivation.
The acreage is expected to touch 10,000 hectares this season, which, however, is lesser than the nearly 13,000 hectares on which the crop was raised last year.
Following the harvesting of samba and thaladi paddy, which together were raised on about 1.30 lakh hectares in the district, a significant number of farmers opted for cultivating summer paddy using the groundwater pumped with the help of energised borewells, sources said.
“In villages, including Senthalai, Konerirajapuram and Manathidal, farmers are engaged in machine transplantation of the summer paddy,” said S Sivakumar, a farmer from Manathidal. Similarly farmers in areas like Orathanadu are also now engaged in the short-term crop’s transplantation.
Meanwhile, in some places like Kasanadu Thekkur, farmers have commenced deweeding works in summer paddy fields using kono weeders. Farmers say the three-phase power supply has been good for the past few weeks.
“As Tangedco has been ensuring uninterrupted power supply for the ongoing examination season in schools, farmers also get to benefit from it,” said Sivakumar, urging uninterrupted power supply till the release of River Cauvery water from the Mettur dam.
When enquired, agriculture and farmers’ welfare department officials said farmers are going in for short-term paddy varieties like TPS 5, ADT 53, CO-31 and ASD 16 this season.
“Last year, summer paddy was cultivated on around 13,000 hectares. This year it, however, is expected to cover 10,000 hectares,” a department official said.
The official attributed the possibility to the increase in kuruvai and samba acreage compared to last season. Meanwhile farmers expressed hope that the rains would be beneficial to summer paddy cultivation.