22.07.2016 Agri collection-cum-processing centres to come up in Dindigul NEXT STEP:A farmer with his agricultural produce stocked at the Agri- Marketing Godown in Dindigul on Thursday.— PHOTO: G. Karthikeyan Survey of quantum of produce, major production centres under way The State government has plans to set up primary collection-cum-processing centres and supply chain management for vegetables, fruits and grains at various places in the district to enable farmers to stock, process and market their produce near their farms and get better prices, according to V. Manoharan, Deputy Director of Agri-Business and Special Officer for Dindigul District Agri-Marketing Committee. Talking to media persons after inspecting a godown on Batlagundu By-pass near here on Thursday, he said these centres would collect agricultural produce from the farmers, process them and create a market base for them. The produce would be stocked in the centres, and traders would be allowed to bid. The commodities would be sold to the highest bidders after with the farmers’ consent, he added.
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22.07.2016
Agri collection-cum-processing centres to come up in Dindigul
NEXT STEP:A farmer with his agricultural produce stocked at the Agri-
Marketing Godown in Dindigul on Thursday.— PHOTO: G. Karthikeyan
Survey of quantum of produce, major production centres under way
The State government has plans to set up primary collection-cum-processing
centres and supply chain management for vegetables, fruits and grains at
various places in the district to enable farmers to stock, process and market their
produce near their farms and get better prices, according to V. Manoharan,
Deputy Director of Agri-Business and Special Officer for Dindigul District
Agri-Marketing Committee.
Talking to media persons after inspecting a godown on Batlagundu By-pass
near here on Thursday, he said these centres would collect agricultural produce
from the farmers, process them and create a market base for them. The produce
would be stocked in the centres, and traders would be allowed to bid. The
commodities would be sold to the highest bidders after with the farmers’
consent, he added.
The main objective of the scheme was to create effective backward linkages and
empower the farmers by providing processing and preservation facilities at
village level to enhance shelf life of perishable items. The centres would have
state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities with efficient supply chain management.
This would reduce wastage and ensure value addition to agri produce to
increase income for the farmers. It would provide cleaning, grading, sorting and
packing facilities, dry warehouses, specialised cold storage facility, including
pre-cooling chambers, ripening chambers, mobile pre-coolers and mobile
collection vans. A survey of types and quantum of produce, major production
centres, nearest markets and annual production was under way. Based on the
survey, the government would set up processing centres, he added.
Agmark lab
The Agmark certification lab here would be shifted to its own premises within a
month as construction of a building for it was at the final stage.
At present, the district has six regulated marketing committees with a total
capacity of 15,200 tonnes, besides cold storage facilities in Natham, Palani,
Dindigul and Gopalpatti with a total capacity of 90 tonnes. Farmers could
hypothecate their produce and get loans up to 75 per cent of the value of their
produce, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 2 lakh, for an interest of 5 per cent.
No godown charges would be levied on their produce for six months, he added.
Farmers asked to download App to get information
Kisan Suvidha, a mobile App launched by the Central government, would
provide all information on market prices of agricultural produce and inputs,
seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and weather alerts to farmers, said Collector N.
Venkatachalam.
Addressing a meeting here on Thursday, he said that the App would also
provide information regarding agri input dealers, plant protection and expert
advice, thus saving the visits to agriculture department offices or the
Collectorate for the farmers.
Details of humidity, temperature, wind and rainfall for the day and the forecast
for the next five days would be given in the App. It would also offer extreme
weather such as unseasonal rains, strong wind and storm.
The farmers would also get pest, weed and disease-related information and pest
management practices for each crop from nursery to harvesting stage.
Messages from district agriculture officers and agricultural universities in the
State would also be sent to them regularly in the local language.
The Collector said the App would also directly connect the farmers to the call
centre for getting clarification from the experts.
All the farmers had to do was to register their mobile numbers, choose a
language and enter required details such as the State, district and block.
The Collector appealed to the farmers to download the App from playstore and
get all the latest information.
Special scheme to increase millets, pulses and oilseed production
Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam announced a new scheme for dry land
farming with special focus on increasing the production of millets, pulses and
oilseeds.
Presenting the budget for 2016-17, he said water conservation measures would
be an integral part of the scheme. “Mixed farming will be promoted in dry lands
by supporting mini dairy and poultry units to supplement farm income,” he said.
Mr. Panneerselvam said a special self-sufficiency pulse production programme
would be launched in the current year and objective was to promote cultivation
of green gram, black gram and red gram under irrigated conditions.
He said the State had planned to bring 27.50 lakh acre under pulse cultivation in
2016-17 and aiming for an overall production of 9.80 lakh tonnes.
Stating that the policy of providing subsidies to micro-irrigation would
continue, he said in 2016-17 the scheme would be adopted in 28,540 acres of
agricultural crops and 86,707 acres of horticultural crops.
The fund allocation is Rs. 319 crore.
Agricultural markets
Mr. Panneerselvam said necessary amendments would be made in the Tamil
Nadu Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act, 1987 to improve the
efficiency of agricultural markets.
This is part of the government’s initiative to upgrade and integrate agricultural
markets and link them with commodity markets with sufficient financial
support.
Subsidies to
micro-irrigation will continue and
Rs. 319 crore is allotted for it
10 agricultural extension centres for Tiruchi
Ten integrated agricultural extension centres which would serve as a one-stop
shop for technical support and input requirements of farmers would come up in
Tiruchi district.
Each of the centres would be set up at a cost of Rs. 1.50 crore. While a majority
of the centres are being established with assistance from the National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development under the Rural Infrastructure Development
Fund (RIDF), a few are being set up under the National Agricultural
Development Programme.
Construction of the centres coming up at Manikandam, Tiruverumbur,
Vaiyampatti and Thottiyam are nearing completion and are expected to be
opened soon, sources told The Hindu .
The other centres would come up at Lalgudi, Uppilliyapuram, Marungapuri,
Manapparai, Thathaiyengarpet and Andhanallur. Sites for all these centres have
been identified and construction of the centre at Thathaiyengarpet has
commenced.
The centres will have facilities for conducting demonstrations, meetings,
trainings, field campaigns for implementation of State and central schemes and
offices for officials of agriculture, horticulture, seed certification, agricultural
engineering and block-level technical managers. They would have provisions
for scientific storage and mini exhibition halls.
The centres would function on the lines of the Farmers’ Hub functioning at
Manachanallur. The hub was established at a cost of Rs. 1.46 crore under the
National Agricultural Development Programme. Farmers could get all
necessary technological inputs from the hub as officials of the agriculture,
horticulture, agri business, agricultural engineering, and seed certification
would be available here. The hub houses a meeting hall and storage godown for
agricultural inputs, officials said.
Nagapattinam gets one
Officials inspecting construction of an agricultural extension centre in
Nagapattinam.— Photo: M. Srinath
Construction of Integrated Agricultural Extension Centre has been taken up here
at an estimate of Rs. 1.50 crore along with a godown with a stocking capacity of
500 tonnes of seeds and fertiliser.
The centre will house all departments of agriculture, horticulture, agri business
and marketing and other allied wings of the agriculture-oriented units for
stocking and distributing various farm inputs and implements. The
infrastructure has a separate conference hall where training programmes for
farmers could be organised. The plinth area would be 534 square metres, 354
square for the office and establishment wing on the ground floor, and the rest
for organising training, expo and exposure visit programmes.
A godown is being constructed with a plinth area of 250 square metre. The
work, which was taken up January this year, is being executed on a fast phase
and would be completed by November this year, said Collector S. Palanisamy.
He told the media that a similar centre with identical features was under
construction at Thalainayiru near here.
Farmers would benefit in a big way as they would be able to access various
departments under a single roof.
The smile is back on the farmer’s face
A farmer preparing land for taking up sowing operationsin Okaly village in
Kalaburagi taluk.
Widespread heavy rain which lashed Kalaburagi district on Wednesday and
continued till the early hours of Thursday has brought back the smiles on the
faces of farmers, reviving the hopes of a bumper harvest for short duration cash
crops, including green gram, black gram and sesamum.
In the past 24 hours, the district recorded a rainfall of 6.1 cm, while all the
seven taluks received heavy and widespread rain saving the situation for the
withering crops due to moisture stress, as it had not rained for the past nearly
one month. Particularly, Kalaburagi, Chitapur, Sedam and Chincholi taluks
received very good rain.
Sources in the Agriculture Department said that rain was long over due for the
standing crops and in a few taluks, germinated crops had started withering due
to lack of moisture in the soil. The only saving grace was the overcast weather
conditions in the past one month, preventing evaporation of whatever moisture
was left in the soil.
The spell of rain on Wednesday and Thursday will help in the revival and
orderly growth of crops and help farmers reap rich from the short duration
crops. In the past three years, farmers could not get much out of short duration
cash crops due to the failure of the rain and whatever little they got was from
the bi-seasonal red gram.
While farmers have taken up green gram in 46,448 hectares against a targeted
area of 35,100 hectares, black gram has been sown in 24,009 hectares against a
targeted area of 25,000 hectares. Sesamum has been taken up in an area of
8,155 hectares against the targeted area of 5,000 hectares.
The rain would also help red gram achieve an orderly growth with more
branches to hold higher number of pods for higher yield. As against the targeted
area of 3.62 lakh hectares, farmers have completed sowing in 3.52 lakh
hectares. In the remaining area, sowing has been suspended due to an extended
dry spell this month. However, sowing would resume now.
According to official figures provided by the Agriculture Department, farmers
have completed sowing operations in 90 per cent of the targeted area.
Against 5.69 lakh hectares target fixed for kharif season, farmers have
completed sowing in more than 5.11 lakh hectares. As much as 100 per cent
sowing in the targeted area has been reported in Chincholi taluk, followed by 99
per cent in Afzalpur, 97 per cent in Sedam, 94 per cent in Aland, 93 and 92 per
cent in Kalaburagi and Chitapur taluks, respectively and 65 per cent in Jewargi
taluk.
Water released from Amaravathi Dam
Water was released from Amaravathi Dam on Thursday to enable the farmers in
the old ayacut area to raise fresh set of crops and also to help irrigate the
standing crops in the command area under new ayacut.
The old ayacut is spread over 7,520 acres in Madathukulam block while the
command area under new ayacut was spread over an expanse of 25,250 acres in
Madathukulam and Dharapuram blocks.
On the day, Collector S. Jayandhi opened the shutters of the dam to allow the
water flow through Amaravathi River and Amaravathi Main Canal.
Public Works Department (Water Resource Organisation) officials told The
Hindu that the release of water through the Amaravathi River would be for 120
days with wetting cycles of seven consecutive days followed by five days of
break in between.
Diverted
Water through Amaravathi River was diverted to the fields through Karatholvu