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Agro-climatic Zone and Major Agro ecological situations

Agro Climatic Zone : North Western Zone of Tamil Nadu

Characteristics

Salem district is an inland district bounded by Dharmapuri district in the North, Namakkal district in the South, Tiruchirapalli, Villupuram and Perambalur districts in the East and Erode district in the West. It lies between 11°  and 12°  North latitude and 77° 40’ and 78° 5’ East longitude. The total geographical area is 5205 sq.km and the district is comprises of seven taluks viz., Attur, Mettur, Omalur, Salem, Sankari, Valappady and Yercaud. The mean maximum temperature is 25°C - 42°C and the mean minimum temperature is 19°C - 25°C. The mean annual rainfall is 939 mm of which 47.6 per cent (447 mm) is received during the North East Monsoon 33.7 per cent (316 mm) during the South West Monsoon 17.4 per cent (164 mm) during summer and 1.3 per cent (12 mm) during winter. The major source of irrigation is through wells (93%). Of the total geographical area, the net sown area occupies 52.3 per cent (2, 72,069 ha) and the remaining area is under forest (24.1%), barren and uncultivable land (8%) and land put to non agricultural uses accounts for 9.4 per cent.

The North Western Agro-climatic Zone shows considerable diversity in soil types. The major soil types occurring in the zone are 1) Red non-calcareous, 2) Red- Calcareous   3) Alluvial 4) Black soil 5) Hill soil 6) Forest soil 7) Saline/alkali soil. Of these major area comes under red non-calcareous and red calcareous soils. Red /brown non- calcareous soil is predominant in the North-Western Zone occupying 62.6 per cent followed by Red/Brown calcareous soil with 30.5 per cent. Black and alluvial soil contributes a meager 5.6 and 1.3 per cent respectively. Total area under Salem District in different soil series is 3.47 lakh hectares of which Red Non-Calcareous soil is predominant occupying 66.3% of the area. The next comes the Red calcareous soil type with 29.3 per cent followed by Black (3.8%) and Alluvial deposits (0.6%). The taluks with non-calcareous soil type are Attur, Mettur, Omalur and Salem. Sankari taluk has predominantly occupied with calcareous soil type. Salem district has the highest area (0.72 lakh ha) under saline and alkalinity IN North Western zone of Tami Nadu followed by Dharmapuri(0.5 lakh ha) and Perambalur taluk(0.4 lakh ha).

Agro ecological situation : Western Ghats (Tamil Nadu uplands) and Deccan Plateau; hot semi arid; red loamy soils; growing period 90-150 days

Characteristics

Agro-ecological situation 1 : (Salem, Mettur, and parts of Omalur Taluks for Salem District)

1. Lack of improved medium duration ragi varieties suited to seedling transplanting under rainfed conditions.
2. Lack of heat resistant rainfed varieties in tomato.
3. Lack of varieties / technology for rainfed banana.
4. As far as irrigated sorghum is concerned, imbalanced use of fertilizers, non- application of Azospirillum along with FYM, incidence of shoot fly warhead bug etc.

Agro-ecological Situation 2 : (Attur taluk of Salem district)

1. Non-availability of adequate quantities of certified seeds in groundnut due to low
2. Multiplication ratio and low plant population due to non-adoption of recommended seed rate/seed treatment.
3. Incidence of pests and diseases in cotton in both winter and summer seasons.
4. Non-availability of high yielding drought tolerant rainfed / irrigated tapioca varieties/hybrids with resistance to phoma disease.

Agro-ecological Situation 3 : (Sankari and parts of Omalur taluk of Salem district)

1. Non-availability of rice varieties better than IR 20 and Ponni suitable for late samba season with tolerance to brown plant hopper.
2. High incidence of pests and diseases in long and extra long staple cotton.
3. Lack of improved medium staple cotton varieties with resistance to stem weevil and whitefly.
4. Lack of high yielding drought resistant semi spreading and spreading varieties of groundnut. Lack of appropriate agronomic practices for spreading type groundnut variety.

Soil type/s