“Farmers can get good income if they grow trees suitable for the soil like Neem, Kodukapuli, Palm, and Naval tree in the southern districts where there are more rainfed lands,” said Thiru Markandeyan, Member of Assembly, Vilathikulam, speaking at an agricultural seminar organized by Cauvery Calling Movement. The seminar titled ‘Cultivation of Rainfed Tree Crops That Yields Lakhs’ was held at today Sri S Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College, Sattur.
“In my constituency, we are planning to plant 1 crore trees in 5 years under the name of ‘Vanathirkul Vilathikulam’. As a part of that, we are also going to plant 25 lakh Palm seeds. Farmers should not plant trees for desire, but for life. In rainfed districts like Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, and Tirunelveli, instead of bothering to plant paddy and Banana, trees like Neem, Naval, Kodukapuli, and Palm should be planted. They grow well in monsoon and give good income,” emphasized Thiru Markandeyan.
“Our target is to achieve 33 percent green area in Tamil Nadu, which is now about 24 percent. However, the Tuticorin district has only 3.8 percent green area. We are doing our best to increase it.”
Referring to G. Nammazhvar, the famous agricultural scientist and organic farming expert, he said, “One Nammalwar is not enough for our country. I wish each and every one of you to become a Nammalvar. I would like to express my appreciation to the Cauvery Calling Movement for organizing this wonderful event”
Thiru Raghuram, Assembly Constituency Member of Sattur pointed out, “The Cauvery Calling Movement has organized this event to make farming profitable. Generally, villages have a neem tree, which grows well on its own without any maintenance. However, if we want to grow acres of neem trees, they will not grow automatically as we expect. You have to follow the right steps for that. In that way, I hope that the experts in this seminar will provide all the necessary advice to the farmers. Tree cultivation is also essential for environmental improvement. Therefore, I am ready to do my best to help in tree planting in this constituency,”
More than 600 farmers from various districts of Tamil Nadu participated in this seminar. Various pioneering farmers and scientists gave them various suggestions. The retired Joint Director of Agriculture Thiru Ramamurthy and the Agricultural Engineer of the Special Project Implementation Department of the Tamil Nadu government Thiru Britoraj spoke about the methods of profiting from the neem tree and Kodukapuli tree cultivation respectively. A scientist at the Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore, Thiru Sundararajan spoke on sandalwood cultivation, and Head of Chettinad Rainfed Agriculture Research Institute Thiru Guruswamy talked about Ilupai tree cultivation.
The Cauvery Calling Movement has been conducting training on tree-based agriculture across Tamil Nadu. The movement has so far distributed about 24 lakh saplings to farmers in 10 southern districts including Madurai, Virudhunagar, and Dindigul Sivagangai. Also, all kinds of timber saplings are being distributed at Rs.3 for the benefit of farmers at Isha Nursery across Tamil Nadu.
(This is an official press release from Isha Foundation. The Commune was not involved in creating this content.)
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