With samba paddy harvest nearing completion, the Agriculture Department is confident of achieving its annual food grain production target for Tiruchi district.

Although it has not been a bumper harvest as expected, the increase in area of cultivation due to opening of Mettur Dam in August and the widespread rainfall will help achieve the annual target set under the food grain mission for the district comfortably this year, department officials say.

The targeted area for coverage, which includes all cereals and pulses, is 1.18 lakh hectares (ha) and the production target is 4.05 lakh tonnes. “We will achieve the targets comfortably this year, thanks to increase in area of coverage due to good flow in the Cauvery and widespread rainfall though the yield in BPT 5024 variety was affected in some pockets of the district due to diseases such as blast and bacterial leaf blight,” says a senior official.

Department sources say that nearly 90% of harvest has been completed and the remaining crop will be harvested within the next 10 days or so. Samba paddy was raised on about 48,000 ha as against last year’s cultivated area of 38,230 ha. The average paddy yield in the district so far is 4,900 kg a ha.

There have been widespread complaints of the yield being affected in BPT 5204 and Akshaya Ponni varieties with some sections of farmers even demanding compensation from the government. Although the Agriculture Department has been discouraging farmers not to go in for the variety over the last five years, as it is susceptible to blast and other diseases, a large number of farmers still opt for it, attracted by the good price that it commands in the open market.

“Farmers get up to ₹1,500 a bag and this is a big attraction for them. But farmers who raised bold varieties such as COR-50 and CR1009 have reported good yield and returns this season as they did not have to spend much on pesticides,” observes a department officer.

However, officials say that not all farmers who raised BPT have suffered losses. In some pockets, there has been a yield drop of up to 50% in areas where farmers did not adopt the recommended crop protection measures.

Farmers who harvested samba crop can go for gingelly or blackgram to get good supplementary income within a short duration, he suggests.

Commenting on the harvest this season, N. Veerasekaran, coordinator, Ayyan Vaical Pasanatharar Sangam, says it has definitely not been a bumper harvest. “But farmers who were able to raise two crops have got some profit. Those who raised BPT and other varieties have reported less than normal yield as the non-seasonal rain extending up to December affected the crop in many places.”

According to the Agriculture Department, the area under millets has been 51,000 ha, the same as last year. Pulses have been raised on about 9,000 ha so far and this is also likely to touch last year’s coverage of 11,000 ha.