TN farmers opt for mechanised planting

TIRUCHY: Struggling with water shortage, most farmers have switched to various methods that compensate for other shortages too.

A minimal number of farmers who commenced samba cultivation have opted for mechanised planting which is comparatively less expensive.

Farmers said that more than 60 per cent of expenses had been reduced through the practice of mechanised planting.

“We have to spend at least Rs 6,000 per acre but through the machine cultivation, the expense is just Rs 1,200 per acre,” said Narasimhan, a progressive farmer from Kadavur, who has been undertaking the machine cultivation on his 12-acre land.

Mechanised planting method, the engineering advancement in the field of agriculture, has a slew of benefits including saving labour costs, and reducing time consumption besides assuring high yield.

Agri experts said that mechanised planting requires systematic mat nursery. While 20 to 30 kilograms of paddy seed is required to raise a nursery to cover one acre through conventional planting, just 3 kilograms of paddy seed is enough for a mat nursery undertaken through mechanised planting.

Apart from this, mechanised planting of seeds requires just 150 grams of paddy seed for each mat and an acre requires 100 such mats. The growth is uniform and this benefits the farmers to harvest an additional 6 to 8 bags of paddy.

Officials further said that the uniform line planting of paddy crops with an equidistant of 22.5 cm between each plant helps in high yield.

With growing unfavourable conditions faced by the farming community, including changes in atmospheric conditions, it is essential for the farmers to adopt technical advancements to perform agriculture practices more effectively, the officials said.