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Thiruvananthapuram , June 19

THE Kerala Government has launched an initiative to cultivate paddy in fallow land in the State, said the State Agriculture Minister, Ms K. R. Gouri Amma.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, she said that steps have been taken to launch paddy cultivation in 10,000 hectares of fallow land in Kerala. This scheme is expected to generate jobs for at least one lakh farm workers in the State. The Agriculture Department expects the scheme to create around 10,000 jobs this year, she added.

With paddy fields increasingly being filled in and used for building houses and commercial buildings, the area under paddy cultivation has fallen, she said. This scheme is intended to reverse the trend of declining paddy cultivation. The State Government will provide financial assistance of Rs 5,000 for every acre of fallow land used to cultivate paddy, she added.

According to the Minister, a recently launched initiative to improve the infrastructure for paddy cultivation in the State's Kuttanad region will bring tremendous benefits to farmers in the area. This project is to be implemented with an investment of Rs 200 crore, she said.

Kerala has received the Union Government's approval for a Rs 1,924-crore project to develop coconut cultivation in the State, Ms Gouri Amma said. The only way to tackle the spread of root wilt disease in coconut is to cut down the affected trees and plant new ones that are resistant to the disease, she pointed out. This strategy will be implemented in the all the districts that have been affected by the disease.

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