The district has been allotted Rs.1.03 crore under the special samba package announced by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the Assembly recently.
The scheme was announced by the Chief Minister to enable farmers to take up direct sowing of samba crop in the delta region if the Mettur dam could not get adequate water by August-end. Farmers are also to be supplied other inputs under the scheme.
Providing details of the allotment under the scheme at the farmers’ grievances day meeting here on Friday, R. Chandrasekaran, Joint Director of Agriculture, said farmers interested in taking up mechanised direct sowing during the samba season would be provided a subsidy of Rs.600 an acre and the subsidy would be extended for 100 acres in the district.
Farmers would also be given Rs.500 an acre for ploughing fields. The subsidy would be extended for about 1,000 acres in the district. Farmers would also get Rs. 10 per kg of seed as grant to get quality seeds. As weeds were likely to sprout in direct sowing, farmers would get Rs. 280 per acre for buying herbicide. The subsidy under this head would be extended to cover 700 acres. This apart, a subsidy of Rs.200 an acre would be provided for applying zinc sulphate and the subsidy would be extended for about 1,000 acres.
Moreover, farmers would get Rs. 2000 per acre as back-ended subsidy in areas where transplantation was done through machines. About 3,600 acres would be covered in the district under mechanised transplantation, he said.
However, a section of farmers contended that the allocation was too meagre and it was not feasible to go in for direct sowing without water for irrigation.
