Plan to revive farm sector

With a good percentage of the district’s population engaged in agriculture and livestock farming, an array of schemes were announced to revive the sector.

A total of ₹ 1.5 crore has been allocated for the second phase of the Sooranadu Common Facility Centre and rice mill, a project aimed at producing and marketing value-added products from paddy, spices, arrowroot, jackfruit, and banana. As part of the efforts to promote paddy cultivation in the district, ₹ 80 lakh has been set aside for a project offering subsidies for labour. “High labour charges and scarcity of workers are the main challenges in this field and we hope to overcome the crisis through this,” said the district panchayat vice president while presenting the budget.

The second phase of Poliyopoli will receive ₹1 crore and the project includes an array of proposals to benefit paddy farmers. For strengthening agro-production and ensuring market, product conglomeration and distribution centres will be started across the district at a cost of ₹50 crore.

A total of ₹1.25 crore has been earmarked for Keragramam to promote coconut farming while another comprehensive agriculture expansion project for coordinating paddy cultivation, livestock farming, and inland fish farming gets ₹20 lakh. Coconut nursery at Karunagappally, State seed farm at Kadakkal, and State seed farm at Kottarakara get ₹11 lakh, ₹11.5 lakh and ₹7 lakh respectively. A total of ₹1.1 crore will be utilised for the expansion of cashew farming.

Poultry sector

In a bid to make the district self-reliant in poultry production, broiler parks will be set up and in the first phase of the project, five poultry units will be started in 20 village panchayats at ₹25 lakh. A total of ₹ 1.2 crore has been allocated for providing dairy farmers with subsidy and milk societies will receive ₹25 lakh as revolving fund.