Farmers told to adopt scientific methods of irrigation
In the wake of the drought prevailing in the district, the Department of Horticulture has launched a campaign to apprise farmers on the need to adopt scientific practices of making judicious utilisation of available water, precision irrigation technologies and watershed development work to save the arecanut crop.
- Vishwanath, Deputy Director of Department of Horticulture, toldThe Hinduthat farmers were being motivated to adopt drip irrigation, construct pits to save rain water and go in for soil mulching.
Arecanut is grown across 50,000 hectares in the district. The district has received 1,377 mm rainfall this year so far, as against the average rainfall of 2,237 mm. Barring Bhadravati, the remaining six taluks in the district have been declared ‘drought-affected’.
Moisture stress
It may be mentioned here that, owing to the scarcity of water, the arecanut crop in 452 hectares of land was damaged last year. Owing to moisture stress caused by scarcity of water, the arecanut flowers were not blooming in the right manner. The pollination process was adversely affected by this. The falling of immature nuts and flowers owing to moisture stress was also reported.
Shikaripur and Sorab taluks were worst affected last year. As drought is prevailing in the district for second consecutive year, further damage is expected for arecanut crop in the coming summer.
Funding
Mr. Vishwanath said that adopting drip irrigation to ensure optimum utilisation of available water and construction of pits to store rainwater were the need of the hour. An amount of Rs. 7 crore has been sanctioned for the district under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) for precision irrigation ventures.
He said that subsidy upto 90 per cent of the unit cost will be offered to farmers with less than five acres of land holding to undertake drip irrigation under the scheme. With the available fund, it is possible to provide subsidy for 2,800 farmers in the district under the scheme to take up drip irrigation. So far, around 1,700 farmers have submitted applications in the district seeking subsidy under PMKSY, he said.
Mr. Vishwanath said that financial assistance upto Rs. 90,000 will be extended to construct krishi honda, pits to store rain water under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) for farmers from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Rs. 75,000 for other farmers. In the wake of the drought prevailing in the district, the zilla panchayat has written to the government to extend financial assistance to at least 150 farmers under NHM for the construction of pits, he added.
Spreading awareness
The pamphlets are being distributed among the farmers through gram panchayats and Raitha Sampark Kendras to provide information on PMKSY and NHM.
In addition to this, farmers have been directed to undertake mulching at the bottom of the arecanut trees to retain the moisture of the soil and to avoid evaporation of water. Training programmes on mulching are being held at hobli-level, he said.
Source: THE HINDU