TIRUCHI
Farmers who have standing cash crops and those have taken up navarai paddy cultivation in Tiruchi district can now hope to purchase fertilizers and other agricultural inputs right at their door step or fields.
Reaching out to the farmers during the lockdown, the Agriculture Department has launched mobile outlets to take the inputs to the villages.
The initiative comes in the wake of prohibitory orders enforced in view the COVID 19 pandemic. While various government departments were taking steps to delivery people’s requirements at their door step, in an attempt to prevent overcrowding at shops and markets, the Agriculture Department has also launched a similar facility.
The initiative was flagged off at Navalpattu in Tiruverumbur block on Monday by S. Shanthi, Deputy Director of Agriculture, in the presence of other Agriculture Department officials.
According to officials, farmers in Tiruverumbur block have taken up navarai paddy cultivation on 350 hectares. In some places, farmers had aired complaints of problems in commuting to shops to purchase fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. The ‘agriculture inputs on wheels’ would address the issue, officials said.
Fertilizers such as urea, super phosphate, muriate of potash and complex fertilizers were sold to farmers at their door step. The transactions were done through POS (point of sale) machines as required under the fertilizer DBT (direct benefit transfer) regime. Other agricultural inputs such as seeds, micro nutrient mixtures and bio-fertilizers are also available for sale at the outlet, officials said.
P. Asokan, Joint Director of Agriculture, said steps had been taken to launch similar outlets in all blocks of the district so that agricultural inputs were available to farmers without any hassles. “The initiative would ensure that there was no loss of yield due to non availability of inputs during critical stages of crop growth,” Mr.Asokan said.
Moreover, when inputs are made available directly to farmers directly, they are convinced that fertilizers would be available when required. This would prevent hoarding of fertilizers by retailers as well as farmers, Mr.Asokan observed and advised farmers to purchase inputs according to their immediate need so that artificial scarcity was not created.
Since the concerned block officials were accompanying the input distribution vehicles, the fertilizers are distributed based on the area cultivated by the farmers, he said.
Farmers, who eagerly received the inputs in their respective areas, were also educated on the need for following social distancing and hand sanitation, Agriculture department officials said.