Much to till, toil before Tamil Nadu can reap

By rolling out an exclusive budget for the agriculture sector, the DMK government has made clear its intent to focus on activity that helps feed the population. Note, 42% of Tamil Nadu’s workers are farmers and, in rural areas, more than 58% of households depend on agriculture for a livelihood.
Farming in the state faces multiple challenges — limited water availability, over-exploited soil, overdependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, non-availability of workforce, lack of remunerative prices for the produce, and conversion of farmland into real estate plots.
The DMK government, in its agriculture budget, has announced a slew of measures such as a separate wing for organic farming within the agriculture department, allocation of ₹573 crore to the state’s agriculture university for carrying out research, an agro-industrial corridor across the Cauvery delta districts, regionspecific hubs to promote cultivation and processing of produce, setting up of more farmers’ markets to save farmers from middlemen and traders and, above all, making every village self-sufficient in food production.
The pandemic has been a big learning experience and Tamil Nadu shifted to Gandhiji’s gram swaraj model to grow vegetables and fruits in every village a year ago. The new government has initiated a mission to take the project forward.
The Nilgiris district has been making huge strides in organic farming. To make organic farming successful, farmers need to be sensitised about best practices and these need to be integrated with modern technology, said D Shanmughanathan, a farmer.
Farmers should be equipped to make their own organic manure and pesticides if organic farming is to be economical. Besides, fertigation is difficult while following organic farming practices, he said.
“The new government has begun its journey in the right direction. The delta districts, which are deprived of any major industry, will benefit from the agro-industrial corridor project,” said V K V Ravichandran, a farmer at Nannilam in Tiruvarur district. “Funds for research will have farreaching benefits. Development of better crop varieties and use of technology can turn around the sector and farmers’ lives,” he added.
However, the government has, perhaps, failed to look at the larger picture. Farmers need to shift from water-intensive cultivation practices to micro-irrigation methods, says Ravichandran.
“To grow one kg of rice, a farmer has to supply about 4,800 litres of water. But under micro-irrigation, for instance drip irrigation, water consumption comes down to 1,200 litres. I have grown paddy using drip irrigation. Micro irrigation and precision farming practices need more emphasis,” he said.
V Antonisamy, an organic farmer at Puliyangudi in Tenkasi district, has generated a yield of 90 tonnes of sugarcane per acre using drip irrigation when most farmers struggle to produce 40 tonnes per acre.
Tamil Nadu has only 3% of India’s freshwater resources. The per capita availability of water in Tamil Nadu is only 750 cubic metres a year, compared to the national average of 2,200 cubic metres.
Still, the state cultivates paddy using flood irrigation on 4.4 million acres - about 30% of the gross sown area and 50% of the total irrigated area.