The area under gingelly is expected to increase by about 200 hectares in Tiruchi district this year, thanks to a push given to oil seed cultivation under the Targeted Rice Fallow Area (TRFA) Oil Seeds Project.
Gingelly is raised on about 1,600-1700 hectares in both rabi and kharif seasons in the district. This year the area under coverage is expected to touch 1,900 ha, Agriculture Department officials said.
The reason for the optimism stems from the fact that the crop has already been raised on about 1,200 hectares in Lalgudi block alone in the district, the officials said.
Under the TRFA project, farmers are being given high yielding TMV-7 seeds under a back-ended subsidy scheme. The seeds have been distributed for an area of 50 hectares each in Lalgudi and Tiruverumbur blocks.
“Farmers normally raise local varieties. But TMV-7 is a high-yielding variety, which can help farmers get a yield of about 500 kg,” said B. Elangovan, Deputy Director of Agriculture (Central Schemes), after inspecting a gingelly field at Nerunjalakudi near Lalgudi recently.
With local varieties, farmers used to get a yield of about 300 kg an acre, he pointed out.
Gingelly is sensitive to water logging. Hence, levelling the field and using adequate seed rate are important to get good yield, the senior official said.
R. Santhanakrishnan, consultant, National Food Security Mission, and S. Jayarani, Assistant Director of Agriculture, Lalgudi, accompanied Mr. Elangovan.