Abstract

The Lower Buavanı Project covers an area of 2.07 lakh acres of land situated in the taluks of Gobichettypalayam, Bhavani, Erode and Dharapuram in Coimbatore District and a portion of Karur taluk in Tiruchirapalli district. Before the advent of the Project, a major portion of the tract was grown with inferior varieties of cotton like Nadam and Bourbon along with other dry crops. Under the project, the ryots were allowed to cultivate half their holdings with Cambodia cotton. Thus Cambodia cotton came to be cultivated under irrigation in an area of about one lakh of acres every year. This sudden switch over from rain-grown cotton to irrigated Cambodia under the project conditions necessitated information on the optimum time of sowing cotton in the Lower Bhavani Project Area.

Keywords: