Jaya doubles subsidy for Cauvery farmers

A day after Karnataka agreed in the Supreme Court to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu till the meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) in Delhi slated to be held on September 20, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha announced doubling of certain subsidy components for farmers for “Samba (long-term)” rice cultivation in the Cauvery Delta districts this year.

Without commenting on the Supreme Court’s proceedings on Monday on this issue, Jayalalitha said here on Tuesday that notwithstanding the uncertainty caused by the  “circumstances this year in which Karnataka has not been able to release timely supplies of water into the Cauvery from its reservoirs,” some of the new techniques mooted to save the “Samba” crop this year have begun to show its impact.

Even as water from the Mettur reservoir in the state will be released for irrigation in the Cauvery Delta districts from September 17 this year, Jayalalitha in a statement said Agriculture Department Extension officers were organising special camps and seminars for farmers in the delta districts of Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore on the benefits of two new water-saving techniques which include raising of collective nurseries and direct broadcast of paddy seeds. Ryots’ suggestions for effective implementation of these were also approved.

The response of the Cauvery delta farmers to these new schemes have been “very encouraging” in the initial days that the government has decided to double the subsidy for special farm operations from Rs 240 per acre to Rs 480 per acre, she said.

“Direct broadcast of paddy seeds (that avoids transplantation from nurseries to paddy fields) have been completed in 47,000 acres so far,” said Jayalalitha. The government had also raised the coverage target to test these new twin techniques from one lakh acres to 2.50 lakh acres this year, she said. For each acre 30 kg of certified paddy seeds will be given to farmers for “direct sowing”.