A total of 1,997 more villages would be added to Kalaignar All Villages Integrated Agricultural Development Programme, this year and all the 12,525 villages across the State would be added to the programme by 2026, said Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare M.R.K Panneerselvam at the inaugural event of Agri Intex 2022 at Coimbatore District Small Industries’ Association (CODISSIA), trade fair complex, here on Friday.
Mr. Panneerselvam along with Minister for Electricity V. Senthil Balaji inaugurated the 20th edition of Agri Intex that is scheduled from July 15 to 18. “Exhibitions of this kind would boost the confidence of the farmers, as they come to the fair with problems and get it addressed here,” said Mr. Panneerselvam.
Lauding the work done by CODISSIA in organising the fair, Mr. Balaji said, from a footfall of 25,000 farmers in 2000 when it was started, the exhibition would benefit more than two lakh farmers this year.
He also said that the government has given one lakh free electricity connections to farmers and started three agriculture colleges within a year.
For the benefit of the coconut farmers, the district administration has increased the direct procurement centre for copra from three to seven, in one year, said Collector G.S. Sameeran.
N. Krishnaraj, chairman of the event, said, as many as 497 companies are participating in the event. More than 10 companies from different countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Israel and Sweden were also participating.
Earlier, the Ministers visited the model farms set up by the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) on the premises. Vice-Chancellor V. Geethalakshmi explained about various crop varieties and poultry farming techniques that were being carried out.
Mayor Kalpana Anandakumar, Commissioner M. Prathap and V. Thirugnanam, president of CODISSIA were present during the inauguration.
