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Farmers Notebook
Courtesy: The Hindu and Business Line
 Food
security depends on small and marginal dryland farmers: The Hindu -
6th May, 2010
About 40 villages in Tirunelveli
have stopped using chemical fertilizers.
Vilathikulam, in Tuticorin district,
being drought prone most of the year, forced many farmers till a few
years ago to either sell their lands or leave them barren. But today
more than 600 farmers in the region are successfully growing different
crops ranging from sunflower to chillies, using low cost input
technologies called Panchagavya (PG) for raising their crops. Few
years back. “Till a few years back, due to drought, many of the lands
in our village lay fallow and unploughed. We walked several kilometres
every day in search of potable water. The situation turned even worse
during summer. Though a few big farmers continued to carry on with
some farming activity, severe shortage of fertilizers forced them also
to give up," says Mr. T. Antony a farmer in the region.” Today,
inspite of acute water scarcity and power cut problems, we are growing
different crops such as sunflower, plantains, paddy, chilli, and
groundnut successfully. Some farmers in our area earned nearly a lakh
of rupees from growing small onions as intercrops in chilli fields,”
adds Mrs. S. Jayalaxmi another farmer.
For visits and more information
readers can contact Sands, Suviseshapuram (via) Ittamozhi-627652,
email:
sands_suviseshapuram@yahoo.com, phone: 04637-278173, mobile:
9444582911 and Prof. Venkatraman at 9488418719.
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