| December 2005
|
Tsunami Newsletter
Series no: 3 |
|
| |
| Agronomic rehabilitation |
| |
| Participatory Demonstrations in
five villages - the progress made |
| |
| On the basis of the intensity and
type of the damage in the Tsunami affected agricultural
lands, farmer participatory demonstration trails are
underway with the following objectives in five selected
fields sites. |
| |
- To develop the capacity of the local farmers through
active participation in the activities - diagnoses,
analysis and evaluating the results
- To develop local resource persons to share the
results with other farmers in the region - to promote
grassroot farmers organizations
- To develop a model for farmer -led extension
|
| |
| Village |
Area covered/acr |
No. of farme |
Crops |
| Anai koil |
13.5- Paddy |
12 |
Paddy- Pulses |
| Neithavasal |
11- Paddy
7.5 |
11 |
Paddy- Pulse
Groundnut |
| Vellapallam |
8.28- Paddy |
16 |
Rainfed Paddy- Pulses- |
| Vettaikaraniruppu |
5- Paddy
5- Casurina- |
11 |
Paddy
Casurina- |
|
| |
| Soil reclamation process |
| |
 Deep
ploughing and land smoothening - Spreading and incorporation of sand/clay deposit
- Removal of cyperus and other weed species
- Providing proper drainage facilities
- Sowing and in situ incorporation of greenmanures
- Leaching wherever possible
- Application of Farm yard Manure
- Selection of salt tolerant varieties
- Application of Biofertilizers - salt tolerant
strains of
|
1.
Phosphobacteria and Azosprillum species,
2. Pseudomonas applied |
- Gravity drip system to enhance water use efficiency
|
| |
| During the northeast monsoon the
area received nearly 600 mm of rainfall and the following
table shows the decline in the soluble salts concentration
(EC) between Jan 2005 to December 2005. |
| |
| Changes in the soil qualities |
| |
| Villages |
pH |
EC |
| 5-Jan |
Ap 05 |
5-Jul |
5-Oct |
5-Dec |
5-Jan |
Ap 05 |
5-Jul |
5-Oct |
5-Dec |
| Annaikovil |
7.1 |
6.99 |
- |
8.1 |
8.2 |
8.3 |
0.48 |
- |
1.1 |
o.313 |
| Neithvasal |
7.3 |
7.86 |
7.6 |
6.83 |
6.8 |
15.5 |
5.89 |
5.7 |
1.18 |
0.6 |
| Vettaikaranirrupu |
7.4-8.2 |
8.34 |
- |
7 |
7.68 |
0.4-2.3 |
1.76 |
- |
0.62 |
|
| Vellapallam |
7.8 |
8.96` |
8.6 |
7.1 |
8 |
0.098 |
|
15 |
0.13 |
4.92 |
|
| |
| Farm pond desilting and fodder
crop cultivation |
| |
 Farm
ponds in Vettaikaranirrupu and Vellapallam villages
were desilted and for the bund stabilization fodder
crop slips were planted (Co3) around the ponds. Also,
it is planned to efficiently use the water through using
gravity drip irrigation and for lifting water pedal
pump technology would be introduced. |
| |
| Drainage canal desilting |
| |
 Due
to the heavy rainfall during the northeast monsoon season,
to avoid the water stagnation in the fields' choked
canals in Vellapallam, Anaikovil and Vettaikaranirrupu
villages the drainage canals were cleaned with the support
of the village communities and drained the flood water.
This helped to some extent to save the standing crops.
|
| |
| Training the farmers - need assessment
followed by training programme |
| |
| Group discussions were held with
farmers group at Vellapallam and Vettaikaranirrupu villages
to assess their training needs. Interactive mode, field
visits and exposure trips are being followed as methods
of training. In each of the village around 25-30 farmers
are being trained on soil reclamation, soil management,
pest and disease management, water management, multipurpose
tree crops and animal husbandry practices. These farmers
would emerge as local resource persons Separate training
plans were prepared for both the villages. |
| |
| The involvement of multistakeholder
in problem analysis and results of the meeting, the
follow up practices through participatory field demonstration
method and the results of soil reclamation have been
presented in National Seminar on Strategies for Improved
Farming and Ecological Security of Costal Region held
on 21 - 24 December 2005 at Thiruvanathapuram organised
by Indian Soiceity of Coastal Agricultural Research
in collobration with Central Tuber Crops Research Institute. |
| |
|
| |
| |