"Neem trees should be grown more in rainfed lands:" Vilathikulam's appeal at Cauvery Calling event in Sattur

At the agricultural seminar titled 'Cultivation of Rainfed Tree Crops that yields lakhs' which was held at Sri S Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College in Sattur, Markandeyan, Member of Assembly, Vilathikulam stated that farmers can get good income if they grow trees suitable for the soil, for example like Neem, Kodukapuli, Palm, and Naval trees in the southern districts where there are more rainfed lands.


The Cauvery Calling Movement organised an agricultural seminar titled 'Cultivation of Rainfed Tree Crops that yields lakhs' which was held at Sri S Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College in Sattur.



“Farmers can get good income if they grow trees suitable for the soil, for example like Neem, Kodukapuli, Palm, and Naval trees in the southern districts where there are more rainfed lands,” stated Markandeyan, Member of Assembly, Vilathikulam while speaking at the agricultural seminar.

“In my constituency, we are planning to plant 1 crore trees in five years under the name of Vanathirkul Vilathikulam. As a part of this, 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 planting paddy and banana, trees like Neem, Naval, Kodukapuli, and Palm should be planted. They grow well in monsoon and give good income,” emphasized 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,” stated Markandeyan.



Referring to G Nammazhvar, the famous agricultural scientist and organic farming expert, Markandeyan said, “One Nammalwar is not enough for our country. I wish for 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."

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 addressed the gathering and shared their expertise. The retired Joint Director of Agriculture, Ramamurthy and the Agricultural Engineer of the Special Project Implementation Department of the Tamil Nadu Government, Britoraj spoke about the methods of profiting from the cultivation of the Neem tree and Kodukapuli tree.



A scientist at the Institute of Wood, Science and Technology in Bangalore, Sundararajan spoke on sandalwood cultivation, while the Head of the Chettinad Rainfed Agriculture Research Institute, Guruswamy talked about Ilupai tree cultivation.

The Cauvery Calling Movement has been conducting training on tree-based agriculture across Tamil Nadu. The movement has thus 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.

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