Madurai district has been gearing up for the implementation of the Stage government’s Mission on Sustainable Dry land Agriculture with 5,000 hectares of rain-fed land already earmarked for the initial phase of the project.
A statement issued by P. Ramanathan, Joint Director of Agriculture (in charge), said that five clusters of 1,000 hectares each had been formed along with five Cluster Development Teams (CDTs) to drive the mission in these clusters. Stating that the five clusters had been formed in Tirumangalam, Kalligudi, Kallupatti, Usilampatti and Sedapatti blocks, officials in the Agriculture Department said that Block-level teams had been formed in each of these clusters to monitor the implementation of the project.
Stating that 5,292 farmers, who own the identified land, had been enumerated for the project, the statement said that 17 farmer clubs had been formed at village panchayat level for the implementation of the project.
Pointing out that the State-level training for 25 master-trainers and district-level training programme had already been completed, the statement further said that cluster and village-level training programmes for farmers were in progress and were expected to be over by the end of this month.
According to officials, the ambitious mission aims to introduce sustainable farming in rain-fed areas by not only creating necessary infrastructure, including creating of check dams, farm ponds and deepening of ooranis, but also assisting the farmers in every level, right from choosing the crop that will suit the land.