Pepper farmers in the district have alleged that Krishi Bhavans had supplied them with withered vines as part of a government project. It has been claimed that hundreds of farmers were let down by the move.
The Krishi Bhavans had procured vines from an approved local nursery, at the price of ₹5 a vine, to be supplied to the farmers for free under a government scheme to encourage pepper farming. A subsidy of ₹20,000 a hectare would also be provided.
Around 6,000 vines were supplied from a nursery at Bheemanadi in the district. Most of the pepper vines were rootless and withered away in the agro bags themselves, Ranjith Nambiar, a farmer from Kottodi in Kallar grama panchayat, said in a letter sent to the Chief Minister Grievance Redressal Cell recently. He accused the Agriculture Department of “taking the farmers for a ride by supplying worthless pepper vines.”
Mr. Nambiar said he wrote to the Chief Minister after the Principal Agriculture Officer here failed to respond to the grievances aired by local farmers. Many a farmer took the drooping vines back to their land in the hope of pocketing at least the subsidy.
He sought a probe into the “nexus between the agricultural officials and local nurseries.” The Chief Minister’s office replied that instruction had been given to the Agriculture Director to institute a probe into the complaint, he said.
While admitting that more than 50% of the supplied vines were drooping, an official at the Krishi Bhavan at Kallar they were mandated to dispatch a delivery note of the supplied vines to the agriculture block-level office so as to facilitate payment of ₹5 per piece to the nurseries.
Probe ordered
The Agriculture Director had been reportedly told to institute a probe into the complaint.
Even the seeds supplied as part of “Onathinu Oru Muram Pachakkari” reached the Krishi Bhavans late. There were no takers for the seeds at the end of the monsoon season. The seeds would have been of much use to the farmers had they been made available before the onset of monsoon, the official said.
