Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is installing a seed vending machine at the entrance of the Botanical Garden on Marudhamalai Road to dispense small quantities of seeds for roof and kitchen gardening purposes.
To be inaugurated on January 11 by Agriculture Minister S. Damodaran, the machine will dispense 36 varieties of seeds, both vegetable and flower, at the touch of a button. It contains six racks – four to hold vegetable seeds and two to hold flower seeds, all in pouches. Hence, a person wanting a pouch from a particular rack has to insert a Rs. 10 note in the given cavity and punch the assigned button on the console near the door of the machine.
According to Vice-Chancellor of the university K. Ramasamy, the Rs. 2.4 lakh-seed dispenser from Haryana is the first to be installed in Tamil Nadu and is aimed at easing the financial burden of those who often end up paying huge amounts for large quantities of seeds they do not require. The machine will be maintained by the Seed Centre of the university and will dispense TNAU seeds.
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The university plans to subsequently install more vending machines that will dispense seeds of private companies too.