Databank on paddy fields in Idukki to be prepared

As part of the State-wide project, the Agriculture Department along with the Revenue Department is preparing a village-level databank on paddy fields in the district.K.K. Chandran, Principal Agriculture Officer, on Wednesday, told The Hindu that though the exact data on the present status of the paddy fields in the district is not available, more areas have been brought under paddy cultivation, thanks to the various schemes that were introduced.He said that the important trend of the district is the paddy cultivation in non-paddy fields (karanellu krishi) is gaining popularity among farmers.The low-lying areas conducive for paddy cultivation in the district is less and paddy fields are affected by the poor groundwater level.About 140 hectares of land has been brought under the ‘karanellu krishi’ with Kanthallur panchayat taking the lead.Farmers usually don’t cultivate paddy due to high labour charge and non-availability of workers. But now Kudumbasree and other micro-level joint groups turned to cultivation either on leased paddy fields or on farmland owned by its members.

The aim of the date bank is to not only collect details of paddy fields under cultivation, but also the details of paddy fields that were converted for cultivation other crops, and fields that have been filled for other purposes.The agriculture officer along with the village officer will make a field study in each panchayat on the basis of the village registry and the data will be submitted to the government for compiling the State-wide data bank.The project is aimed at promoting rice cultivation. The officials will compile the material for the data bank, which will be released by November 30.

It will be available in each grama pachayat and a campaign will be launched to promote rice cultivation.Though, farmers brought more areas under rice cultivation from sugarcane cultivation in Marayur and Kanthallur grama panchayats when the prices of jaggery fell, many paddy fields are not cultivated in grama panchayats like Erattayar, Adimaly, Kumily and Rajakkad.

The Hindu, 29th October 2009