Lion’s share of credit earmarked for agriculture, allied activities in PLP

Even as the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has earmarked a lion’s share of credit for agriculture and allied activities in its Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) for Ariyalur district, one of the most backward districts in the State, it has suggested a number of steps to boost agriculture there.

With just five days left for registering for the agricultural insurance, farmers who have taken land on lease are in a quandary as to whether they will be benefited anyway by the insurance for which the State Government is prepared to pay the entire premium. With prospects for samba crop looking bleak, this assumes great significance.

Leasing cultivable land is a common practice. Besides, there is another system called “vaaram” under which the landowner shares the cost of cultivation.

Centre urged to ensure 40 tmcft water from Karnataka

With a prolonged dry spell in the past fortnight after the lashing that the Nilam cyclone has inflicted, the delta farmers are once again at the mercy of Rain God. Only a few spells of moderate rain in the next few weeks supplemented by supply from the Mettur dam can save the standing samba crops in lakhs of acres, asserts Mannargudi S. Ranganathan, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association.

While there is so much of brouhaha over sand quarrying, “there is quite a lot sand available untapped in the water spread area of Mettur Dam,” says N. Natarajan, former Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department, and author of two books on the Cauvery. This would enormously benefit the dam itself, he asserts.

“The difference between removing sand from the river and the water spread area is that the holding capacity of the river would be lost once sand is removed from the river. One cubic foot of sand can hold three cubic feet of water. But when sand and silt are removed from the water spread area, more water could be accommodated,,” he explains. Mettur Dam has a water spread area of about 153 sq km.

The solution is to learn how to keep consumption below eight units a day

With power charges hitting the roof, all that the domestic consumers in the State would have to think of at present is how to restrict their consumption below 500 units. Beyond that level, there is not even an iota of subsidy.

Court should decide on Cauvery issue, they say

With the Cauvery dispute once again starting to generate heat in Karnataka, which is preparing for using the river's water for summer irrigation, a measure opposed by Tamil Nadu, farmers in Tamil Nadu are a worried lot.

As a major step in this direction, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has ordered supply of rice free of cost to eligible cardholders under PDS as per their entitlement from June1 despite a huge burden on the State exchequer.

he State Government is determined to “spare no efforts” to transform the gloomy scenario of the primary sector and has vowed “to usher in a second green revolution to improve agricultural production by addressing the productivity gap and through value addition.”