Farmers in a memorandum to Chief Secretary Chetan B. Sanghi have alleged that the Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), which is in the doldrums, has been neglecting its primary responsibility.
A. Ramamurthy, general secretary of the Puducherry Certified Seed Producers Welfare Association, said in the last three years, the farmers had been suffering for want of seeds, fertilizers, farm implements and technical support from the KVK.
The KVK had been producing and supplying tissue culture banana saplings to Agriculture Department for distribution to the farmers at subsidised rates. As the prices of saplings were increased from Rs.10 to Rs.20, the farmers had been forced to cough up additional costs of Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000 per acre, the memorandum said.
The kendra was also raising good quality paddy seedlings such as white ponni, ADT 43, CR1009, Bapatla on 54 acres for distribution to the farmers. At present, the field had been kept fallow, citing lack of funds. It also stopped research works.
The memorandum said under ‘precision farming project,’ the drip irrigation system had been installed on the farm fields at 100 per cent subsidy. But for the past two years, not even a single farmer was benefited under the scheme even as the Union government had been insisting the State government to implement the scheme to conserve water and increase the production of horticulture crop.
The farmers also alleged that funds allocated by the Union government were diverted to non-agricultural purposes.
