Low rainfall, but no grain production shortfall in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI : Despite several parts of Tamil Nadu facing agricultural stress due to shortage of water caused by the below-normal rainfall during the northeast monsoon, the Department of Agriculture has set another record in food production by exceeding the 100-lakh-tonne mark during 2017-18. This is a big comeback compared to last year when production was only 52.38-lakh-tonnes.It is the fifth time since 2011-12 that the state has achieved the 100-lakh-tonne food production. On the other four occasions, the State bagged the Krishi Karman award from the Centre.

“The total volume of food production during 2017-18 stands at 109.37 lakh tonnes as per the statistics. There may be a 10 per cent plus or minus in the final data collection,” V Dakshinamoorthy, Director of Agriculture, told Express on Monday. The total acreage is 44.07 hectares of which paddy cultivation accounts for 18.60 lakh hectares with a production of 65.92 lakh tonnes.  The figure for millets is 9.17 lakh hectares and 37.36 lakh tonnes while pulses were cultivated in an acreage of 8.68 lakh hectares and production stood at 6.09 lakh tonnes.

Continuous monitoring of the ground situation, providing technical inputs to the farmers, distributing seeds and fertilisers on time and disbursing incentives were the key government interventions that ensured achievement of the goal. Top officials of the department have been holding periodic reviews with district heads of the department to initiate necessary steps to find alternative water resources to meet the requirements of irrigation in certain parts of the State hit by poor rainfall.

Although crops in several tracts of land in Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai, Pudukottai and Thanjavur districts withered without adequate water, districts such as Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram, with additional area under cultivation, helped the State make up for the production shortfall.