Collector's view about drinking water
Coimbatore: “As I am confident that it is not a skip-monsoon, I don’t think there will be any water scarcity in the district,” Collector Neeraj Mittal told a press conference here on Friday.He said that the monsoon was neither “far behind” nor “delayed”.According to indications, it should start raining any time in the region. “The South West Monsoon has already reached various parts of Kerala.” At the same time, he appealed to the public to conserve water.Meanwhile, the district planned to increase the total food production from about 15 lakh metric tonnes (MT) to 17 lakh MT during the current fiscal.He pointed out that it had achieved 20 per cent more coverage than the target of the last financial year with regard to paddy, sorghum and maize.While one hectare of sorghum had recorded a yield of 1500 kg, the yield of maize for a hectare was 15,000 kg.“This growth is three per cent more than the previous years.”Similarly, with regard to pulses, the yield had been 386 kg for a hectare which was 20 per cent more than the previous years.Maize and pulses had been promoted under the Intensive Cultivation Campaign and raised on 22,000 hectares which was more than the district’s normal area.
During the current financial year, it had been proposed to achieve a yield of 4,500 kg for an acre and thus the total paddy production would be 51,800 MT.The target for millets was 3.81 lakh MT, pulses 22,800 MT, oil seeds 42, 200 MT, cotton 9,100 MT and sugarcane 12.5 lakh MT.The Agriculture Department would distribute 368 MT of certified seeds this financial year, Mr. Mittal said.In order to help those cultivating maize, a special scheme called Market-linked Agricultural Intensification (MALAI) was being implemented in seven blocks of the district.Under this programme, agreements had been forged with the organisations procuring maize and the farmers had directly supplied 3,000 MT to these organisations. Under this pilot scheme, farmers would be able to get a remunerative price.
