team of 20 farmers from the district will be taken on an exposure visit to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, to gain expertise on organic and integrated farming besides wasteland reclamation.
The visit is being sponsored by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) under its Farmers Technology Transfer Fund (FTTF). The exposure is intended to make farmers adopt new technologies by exposing them to successful innovative projects in field conditions, R. Shankar Narayan, Assistant General Manager, NABARD, told The Hindu on Wednesday.
The farmers, drawn from 15 farmers clubs supported by NABARD and managed by the Indian Agriculture Development Foundation, would start the three-day visit on Thursday. Apart from getting to know different modern agriculture equipment developed by TNAU, the farmers would also visit its Integrated Farming System being run under different soil conditions, he said.
The farmers would learn waste land development and reclamation by visiting the Anthiyur Waste land Development project, in which about 300 acres of waste land had been reclaimed with NABARD's assistance. The waste land had now been developed into a flourishing farm with Amla cultivation underway, he said.
A trip has also been scheduled to the Tamil Nadu Organic Farming Trust to understand their methods of organic farming. Following this, the team would visit three farmers who had successfully adopted organic farming: P. Selvaraj and Revathy in Coimbatore besides Mr. Alagarsamy who is cultivating drumstick at his farm in Dindigul.
Under another FTTF initiative, NABARD is going to train 150 farmers drawn from various farmers’ clubs in dissemination of information on agricultural technologies and marketing through a non-governmental agency. The training will commence from December 14, he said.
