Efforts taken to bring more area under cultivation

The monsoon was expected to be normal and Mettur reservoir has been opened on the scheduled date of June 12 for 'kuruvai' cultivation, Kosalaraman, said while speaking at the two-day workshop on Supply Chain Management, here today.

It was planned to achieve a foodgrain production of 108 lakh tonnes during 2008-09. Special attention has been bestowed to make available the major inputs such as quality seeds, fertilizers and credit to the farmers adequately in time, he said.

With regard to fertilizers, the agriculture department was constantly monitoring the position and a district level monitoring cell has been formed, with suitable action being taken to move the fertilizers to the distribution points immediately, Kosalaraman said.

He said 5.3 lakh farmers have been enrolled by collecting a premium of Rs 20 crore under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme.

For the first time, the compensation claim to be disbursed to the farmers was estimated to be around Rs 300 crore,of which Ramanathapuram district alone would get Rs 176 crore as compensation for rainfed paddy lost due to drought.