The growing need for land for industrial and residential purposes has resulted in lands under agriculture shrinking by 10 to 15 per cent per annum in Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur districts. Top officials in the Agriculture Department, pointing out to the statistics discussed by the State Planning Commission at its recent meetings, say that in these districts, the total extent of land under agriculture has come down by 1.50 lakh hectares over the last three years. Irrigation systems Agriculture activities in the districts primarily depend on the irrigation systems of Bhavani, Noyyal, Parambikulam – Aliyar Project, Amaravathy and largely pertained to paddy, sugarcane, coconut, turmeric, tomato, onion and maize cultivation. While the availability of water from the irrigation system depends on nature, depleting ground water level discourages farmers from taking up agricultural activities. Shortage of manpower for farm activities and increase in cost of production has made farming unviable to farmers. Lands in Thondamuthur, Vadavalli, Perur, Saravanampatty, Kalapatti, Sulur and Neelambur have witnessed large scale conversion of agricultural land for residential purposes and industrial needs. With Coimbatore witnessing entry of other major players in the information technology sector besides engineering and textiles, demand for land for industrial or commercial purposes has increased. Land under cultivation in 2007-08 was 4.16 lakh hectares and in 2008-09, it was 3.80 lakh hectares and in 2010-11 the extent of land under cultivation had come down to 3.56 lakh hectares. Across the State, officials point to agriculture activities coming down on nearly five lakh hectares. 11th Plan period During the four years of the 11{+t}{+h}Plan period, agriculture production was only 0.69 per cent as against the envisaged growth of four per cent. Officials say that paddy production in the district in 2007 was on 40,955 hectares and in 2010, it was only 39,322 hectares. Maize cultivation Maize cultivation had also gone down from 43,164 hectares in 2007 to 2,667 hectares in 2010 while area under cultivation of sugarcane in 2007 was 44,514 hectares and in 2010 it was 35,983 hectares. To achieve the target in the 12{+t}{+h}Plan period beginning April, the official machinery is keen to ensure that farm activities get sops from the Government to make it viable to arrest the practice of farmlands being sold for other purposes.