Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Farm panel to submit report soon

TIRUCHI: The Agriculture Expert Committee will submit its report to the State government by December, its chairman and former Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, S. Kannaiyan, said on Monday.

He was talking to reporters after the committee’s sitting here.

The government constituted the seven-member committee to evolve a strategy to improve agricultural productivity through the maximum utilisation of technology. The committee was expected to assess the efficacy of technology transfer and extension services; pinpoint the drawbacks in the implementation of various schemes; and identify the difficulties faced by farmers and officials in achieving the goals.

Dr. Kannaiyan said that the committee would recommend simplification of norms for the crop insurance scheme. Several farmers, who had been hit by floods, had said the norms were not farmer-friendly. Simplified norms for crop cutting experiment and indemnity payment would be one of the major recommendations.

The committee would also recommend more farm credit, commensurate with cultivation cost; augmentation of irrigational infrastructure by desilting tanks, setting up of farm ponds and construction of checkdams; and mechanisation of agriculture in the wake of labour scarcity of labour.

Creating cold storage units would be a priority to protect the interest of horticulturists. Training programmes through the Krishi Vigyan Kendras would be toned up for the benefit of more farmers.

Dr. Kannaiyan said that to ensure inter-departmental co-ordination for more efficient implementation of farmer-oriented schemes, the committee was planning to recommend constitution of a district-level body, comprising farm scientists, officials and farmers’ representatives. “It will not be a monitoring committee,” he said.

Earlier, the committee heard the views of officials of the Agriculture, Horticulture, Agricultural Engineering Departments, scientists of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra and the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, and farmers of the central districts. This was the fifth sitting of the committee.

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