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The Tamil Nadu Government plans to adopt ‘farm level planning' over the next three years to achieve sustainable agriculture production and meet the current year's targets.
Moving the demand for grants to the Agriculture Ministry, Mr K.A. Sengottaiyan, the Minister for Agriculture, outlined in the policy note the Government's plan to achieve the target of 115 lakh tonnes of foodgrain – rice, millets and pulses — production during 2011-12. This represents a 34 per cent growth over the production achieved in 2010-11.
The plan includes farm-level interventions in areas of soil health care, water management, increasing crop production through quality inputs, productivity, mechanisation and technology intervention, extension and risk mitigation.
According to the policy note, in 2010-11 foodgrain output in the State was hit by flooding due to heavy North-East monsoons in November 2010. Yield loss was more than 50 per cent in the ‘Samba' paddy planted in August 2010. Other crops were also affected. The output of 85.35 lakh tonnes was 23 per cent below the targeted 112 lakh tonnes.
The Government has also targeted significant increases in other crop including oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton.
To stabilise the area under cultivation and increase productivity, the Agriculture Department will identify constraints to provide location-specific solutions. The objective will be to increase paddy areas to 22 lakh hectares (21.50 lakh ha), extend the area under the high-yielding System of Rice Intensification to 9 lakh ha (8.50 lakh ha) and promote pulses as a pure crop.
It is also making available high quality inputs including seeds, nutrients and plant protection chemicals.
Seed replacement rate is a key factor with 33 per cent replacement recommended for crops such as paddy, pulses, millets; 50 per cent for cotton, 100 per cent if hybrids. These levels have been achieved for paddy, millets and cotton. The exception are pulses and oilseeds for which the seed farm areas are being increased, the policy note said.
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