The Collective Farming Scheme introduced by the State government has met with a good response and 78 Farmers’ Producers Groups (FPGs) would be promoted in Tiruchi district during the current financial year, Collector K.Rajamani said here on Monday.
Speaking at Buyer-Seller Meet organised by the Agriculture Department to enable the FPGs to select farm machines that they would purchase utilising the subsidy provided by the government here, Mr.Rajamani said 75 FPGs were formed during 2017-18 and they were provided a subsidy of ₹5 lakh each for purchase of farm machines. Utilising the subsidy, the FPOs had purchased 51 tractors, 56 power tiller, 10 power weeders, five power reapers, 110 power sprayers and four balers.
The State government has launched an initiative to promote collective farming, which envisages pooling of farmers land and resources to derive benefits of large-scale farming.
Under the initiative, farmers’ interest groups (FIGs) of 20 members each are formed. Five FIGs come together to form Farmers Producers’ Groups (FPG) and 10 FPGs will form one farmer-producer organisation (FPO). This will enable small and marginal farmers of FIGs to consolidate their holdings, without changing the ownership of land and resources to get the benefit of large scale farming
Mr. Rajamani 175 FIGs were formed in the district through the Department of Agriculture and 100 FIGs through the Department of Horticulture last year. This year, 290 FIGs would be formed.
A subsidy of ₹3.90 crore would be given to 78 FPGs this year, he added.
Experience farmers can also come forward to guide the groups, he said.
K.Balraj, Joint Director of Agriculture, Ravi and Krishnamurthy, Deputy Directors of Agriculture, and other officials were present.