A capacity building programme for officials and farmers on advanced dry land technologies under Mission on Sustainable Dry Land Agriculture was inaugurated by Collector M. Ravikumar here on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ravikumar said that
15 clusters comprising 42 village panchayats had been formed in six dry blocks of the district. Three clusters each in Kovilpatti, Kayathar and Ottapidaram and two each in Vilathikulam, Pudur and Karungulam blocks had been formed.
The main cropping season for these blocks is north-east monsoon. All farming activities, right from field preparation to marketing of produce, would be taken care of under the programme, he said.
Besides, opportunities were also available for farmers to construct water harvesting structures such as check dams and percolation ponds in the clusters, utilising the funds available for entry point and land development activities.
Joint Director of Agriculture M.S.N. Selvaraj said ₹500 per acre would be provided for summer ploughing to a farmer as subsidy.
Moreover, seeds and DAP would be supplied at 50% subsidy. The entire dry land mission crop would be under constant monitoring of the cluster development team and block development team.
As for value addition of the produce, machinery would be provided at 50% subsidy to a maximum of ₹ 6 lakh to the eligible farm producers’ organisation or farmers’ club.
Making use of the rainfall received so far, farmers had started summer ploughing in Kayathar, Kovilpatti and Karungulam blocks, he also said.