Palakkad, Saturday 04 July 2009: Palakkad district will account for 50 per cent of paddy production in the State going by the marked increase in production.

In 2007-08, the share of the district in total production in the State was 46 per cent. In 2008-09, the district had brought 627 hectares of barren land under paddy cultivation.

The Agriculture Department, district panchayats and other local bodies are implementing various intensive paddy cultivation schemes that will help increase rice production, said agriculture experts.

In 2008-09, the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation had procured 1,27,102 tonnes of paddy from the district under the paddy procurement scheme of the State government. This was 22,360 tonne more than the paddy produced in the district during the previous year.
The farmers were paid Rs.139.82 crore as the procurement price during 2008-09, an official release here said.

As per the report of the State Statistical Survey Department, the paddy production in Palakkad was 46 per cent of the total production in the State in 2007-08. Alappuzha came second with 14 per cent followed by Thrissur, 12 per cent. The lowest percentage of production was in Pathanamthitta district, according to the survey.

(News agency)