3 months ago
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Several cardinal areas successful Tamil Nadu’s cultivation assemblage necessitate contiguous attraction to guarantee sustainable maturation and resilience. This was categorically stated by the State Planning Commission (SPC) successful the State’s Economic Survey 2025-26, which was released connected Monday (February 16, 2026).
Stating that since 2001-02, Tamil Nadu mislaid astir 2 lakh hectares of nett sown country and witnessed a emergence successful fallow land, the SPC pointed to underutilised cultivable land, portion emphasisng the request for policies to reclaim and optimise fallow lands. Referring to the diminution successful aboveground irrigation sources, specified arsenic canals and tanks, accompanied by stagnancy successful nett irrigated area, the sheet called for promoting businesslike groundwater absorption successful presumption of wells, invariably utilized done electrified pumpsets, dominating the nett irrigated area.
“Heavy dependence connected section markets for inputs and outputs underscore the necessity for enhanced sustainable input systems and marketplace infrastructure development. Stagnation successful yields of cardinal crops similar paddy, pulses, and important fruits request [s] to beryllium addressed to amended livelihoods of cultivation households, ” the Commission observed.
Lauding the livestock assemblage for showing “remarkable growth,” the SPC said this had emerged arsenic a “key operator amid the declining fortunes” of the harvest sub-sector. Its publication to gross worth added from agriculture, forestry, and sportfishing rose from 30% successful 2011-12 to 53% successful 2024-25. “This assemblage needs attraction done acold retention infrastructure improvement State-wide to curb wastage successful selling perishable products similar eggs, meat, milk, and fish, alongside strengthened enactment for sustainable practices and marketplace linkages.”
Though paddy had retained its presumption arsenic the ascendant cereal harvest of the State, maize cultivation went up significantly. Between 2001-02 and 2023-24, it grew a compound yearly complaint of 7.5% with the country nether maize going up by 3.6 lakh hectares from little than 1 lakh hectare successful 2001-02. This was “primarily due to the fact that of its request arsenic poultry feed.” At the aforesaid time, each different cereal crops specified arsenic “cumbu ragi, kora, varagu, and samai person seen an implicit diminution successful country nether cultivation implicit the period.”
Speaking of the consciousness of farmers astir the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for assorted crops, the Commission recorded the consciousness level remained limited. “[The] Survey grounds from 2018-19 suggests that astir 68% of cultivation households were unaware of the MSP for paddy and astir 90% unaware of the MSP for maize, highlighting the request for improved accusation dissemination and assured procurement to mitigate marketplace risk.” About 80% of households relied connected section markets for some input procurement and output sales, underlining the centrality of these marketplace spaces and the urgency of investments successful storage, transport, grading, and trading infrastructure to heighten ratio and husbandman welfare.
Favouring the adoption of bio-inputs and little dependence connected chemic inputs, the SPC stated despite the beingness of a fig of hold institutions, determination were constraints successful their outreach. This had lone underscored the request for strengthening hold systems to guarantee timely entree to reliable method knowledge. In addition, lone a tiny proportionality of households person ungraded wellness cards, adjacent though “soil-specific nutrient absorption is cardinal to some productivity and sustainability. Expanding ungraded investigating capableness and strengthening ungraded wellness laboratory networks are truthful indispensable for promoting businesslike input usage and safeguarding the semipermanent ecological viability of agriculture successful Tamil Nadu,” the Commission recommended.
