Abstract

The Lower Bhavani Project commands an area of 207 lakhs acres of land situated in the Taluks of Gobichettipalayam, Erode, Bhavani and Dharapuram of Coimbatore District and a portion of Karur Taluk in Tiruchirapalli District. Before the advent of the. Project, most of the lands were cultivated with inferior varieties of cotton like Nadam and Bourbon along with other dry crops and Cambodia was cultivated only in certain garden-lands. Under the project, the ryots were allowed to cultivate half their holding with Cambodia. Thus irrigated Cambodia cotton occupies every year one lakh of acres in this area. This sudden switchover from dryland farming to intensive cultivation under the project condition brought to the cultivators of the tract new problems to solve, viz. building up of soil fertility, shortage of manure, choosing suitable crops and varieties and adopting new agronomic practices to the changed conditions. The present paper deals with these pro- blems offering suggestions to overcome the difficulties.

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