Agri technocrats recommend Mettur water release on June 12

TIRUCHY: A quantum of 232 TMC in Mettur would be required for successful harvest of samba, kuruvai and thalady paddy crops this year. As the Karnataka government has to release due quantum of 167.25 TMC as per the Supreme Court award and with Mettur dam having a storage of 65 TMC at present, the state can open the reservoir on the customary date of June 12 for Delta irrigation, said Senior Agriculture Technocrats in Thanjavur on Monday.

Releasing a handbook on recommendation on the possibility to open Mettur dam on June 12, a group of senior agricultural technocrats, comprising of agriculture officers and farm agriculture scientists, told reporters that in previous years, Mettur dam was opened on June 12 and nursery planting was undertaken in July to facilitate harvest in October when there would be monsoon rains. But, this caused heavy damage to the crops.

“In order to avoid such natural disturbances, we recommend direct sowing for kuruvai and complete the nursery planting by June 30 and those who plan for long term samba cultivation should wait till August 15 for planting of nurseries. They can start planting nurseries after September 7, which will minimise or avoid damage to crops due to rains,” said P Kalaivanan, one of the members of the group.

Kalaivanan said that it is possible to achieve targeted harvest level by utilising groundwater along with Mettur quantum. The technocrats have recommended to the state to open the Stanley reservoir for Delta crops on the customary date of June 12.

“We have released the handbook with recommendations and would submit it to the Chief Minister, Irrigation Minister, Agriculture Minister, Cooperative Minister, Government Secretaries and Engineers concerned also for their consideration,” Kalaivanan said.

He pointed out that there is storage of 65 TMC in Mettur dam at present and the Karnataka government should share a quantum of 167.25 TMC.

“And thus the total 232 TMC water will be sufficient to undertake kuruvai, samba and thalady cultivation,” he said.

He also stressed that the farmers should start cultivation with direct sowing methods so that the Mettur water could be economically used during cultivation.

He said that 22,000 hectare kuruvai was cultivated through direct sowing last year while it is proposed to have 75,000 hectare in the current year through this method. Senior technocrat V Kaliyamurthy was also present.