Prayer For Good Monsoon

Farmers and water managers in the local bodies in the western region of the State are looking skywards with a fervent prayer for a good South West Monsoon. Agriculture and drinking water supply are two areas of concern that the monsoon will be expected to address. The monsoon was supposed to have arrived in the first week of June in Coimbatore. The first sign normally comes in the form of reports of rain from the Siruvani Dam located in the Mannarkad forest region of Palakkad District in neighbouring Kerala.

Reports of rain in Palakkad and some showers in the city over the last two days have sounded the arrival of the monsoon. While the city benefits more from the North-East Monsoon, the Siruvani and Pilloor Dams and the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) water resources are the real beneficiaries, if there is a good monsoon. The monsoon holds the key to agriculture in the PAP region.

In the event of heavy rain, water from the Western Ghats flows through River Noyyal to a number of tanks in and around the city. This, in turn, helps maintain a good ground water table.
The district has an average cultivable area of 3.22 lakh hectares of which coconut, a perennial crop, alone accounts for Rs.1 lakh hectares. Cotton accounts for 8,000 hectares and other food crops constituted 2.15 lakh hectares. Paddy 10,000 hectares, pulses 32,000 hectares, oil seeds about 22,500 hectares and sugarcane about 10,000 hectares. The average South West Monsoon rainfall in Coimbatore is 137 mm. The maximum of 245 mm was received in 2000 and the minimum of 70 mm in 1999.

In terms of Agricultural inputs, Joint Director of Agriculture P. Subramaniam said seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are ready for the ensuing monsoon period. In the ensuing monsoon, the district is geared up for 8000 hectares under paddy, 16,500 hectares under maize, 9,050 hectares under pulses and 11,175 hectares under oil seeds. Even as the district administration in the Nilgiris plans measures to deal with situations arising out of landslips that occur during monsoon, farmers, including those cultivating the famous Nilgiris potato, hope for a good monsoon.

In Salem, the district administration is making arrangements to facilitate the farmers take up cultivation. The agriculture department has already covered five villages in each block and is extending the campaign to the others. “We have stocked sufficient quantity of seeds, bio fertilisers and micro nutrients in the agriculture extension centres. Farmers have already been informed about the inputs available at these centres,” Joint Director of Agriculture K. Janagan says.

The department is aggressively promoting the cultivation of crops, which are less water-intensive this year. “We are advising the farmers to go in for crops such as maize and sunflower, which will fetch good income for them,” he added. Erode also hopes for a good monsoon so that agricultural lands irrigated by the Lower Bhavani Project benefit. The Water from the two LBP canals is released for two seasons: for wet crop (paddy) from August 15 to December 15 and dry crop (usually groundnut) from January 1 to April 30.LBP The LBP irrigates 1.03 lakh acres from the canals. The wet season requires 24 tmc water, and dry 12 tmc. Most of the water the LBP receives is from the Bhavani Sagar Dam, which gets most of its water from South West Monsoon.

The Public Works Department’s Water Resource Organisation officials say that in the past five years there has been no problem with water inflow in the dam. In Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, farmers are ready to begin cultivation of paddy, millets and pulses. Pre-monsoon showers had raised ground water level and improved storage in reservoirs, which enabled the farmers to begin the initial process for the agriculture season. (Inputs from V.S. Palaniappan in Coimbatore, S. Ramesh in Salem, Karthik Madhavan in Erode, D. Radhakrishnan in Udhagamandalam and S. Prasad in Krishnagiri)

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