The district panchayat has decided to begin cultivation in the fallow land spread across the district.
The decision was taken at a steering committee meeting on Monday, following Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s call to increase agricultural production to achieve self-sufficiency. An action plan has been prepared by the agricultural officers.
According to the district panchayat’s estimates, the district has more than 5,000 acres of land lying fallow. The project aims at turning this into cultivable land and to make the district self-sufficient in vegetable production. Considering the peculiar situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 20 plots in 18 grama panchayats, covering an area of 200 acres, have been chosen for farming in the initial stage.
Volunteers in the grama panchayats, Kudumbashree groups, and Haritha Karma Sena members, will be taking up the farming work. Meetings will be held in the panchayats on Tuesday to organise the groups and volunteers for the work. In the initial phase, vegetables, rice, tapioca and plantain will be cultivated. The Deputy Director of agriculture has been given the responsibility of procuring the seeds and saplings.
The second phase of the cultivation in fallow land will be taken up after the lockdown. District panchayat V.K. Madhu appealed to the public to join in the effort.