Farmers hopeful of better yield during samba season

Cauvery delta sees improved paddy cultivation for samba season despite lower kuruvai coverage, aided by water availability and soil conditions.

Even as paddy coverage in the Cauvery delta during this year’s kuruvai cultivation season was less by about 1.7 lakh acres, the coverage during the samba season appears to be better. 

Compared to the previous year (around 6,700 acres) during the corresponding period (as on August 28), the present samba coverage is about 10,000 acres. Nursery has been raised in about 925 acres.  Normally, the planted area will be 10 times the extent of the nursery raised.

The availability of water, both surface and groundwater, and the suitable soil conditions are being cited by cross-section of agriculturists and experts as factors that will pave the way for a “robust crop”. As on Tuesday morning, the water level at the Mettur dam stood at 116.32 ft (full level: 120 ft) with the storage being 87.7 thousand million cubic feet (capacity: 93.4 tmc ft). V. Ravichandran, a Nannilam-based farmer, points to the improvement in the soil porosity and hopes for a higher yield this time. 

Regardless of the water availability, direct sowing seems to have become the norm. Of the 10,000 acres covered, around 9,400 acres fall under this method. What has driven the farmers to take to this method is the labour shortage and the availability of chemicals to overcome problems that arise on account of direct sowing, says Mr. Ravichandran. Pointing out that some of the long-term crops have the trait of submergence tolerance, he calls for incorporating the trait in medium term crops too.  

Expressing satisfaction over the Mettur storage, an agricultural expert, however, expresses caution and feels that the State should continue to exert pressure on Karnataka in one way or the other to get its due for the month of September and October, as the present trend of drawal of at least one tmc ft a day will have to continue till third week of October. Besides, the current rate of inflow in the Cauvery is expected to reduce shortly. For the last few days, the daily inflow was of the order of 1.4 tmc ft to 1.5 tmc ft.