TIRUNELVELI
Commissioner for Agriculture Production C. Samayamoorthy visited a few villages in Nanguneri taluk on Saturday to review implementation of Kalaignar’s All Villages Integrated Agriculture Development Programme.
The scheme, being executed in select hamlets of Tamil Nadu by integrating 13 government departments to ensure holistic development of the villages, particularly for reviving agricultural operations, has been introduced in 35 villages of Tirunelveli district. The Tamil Nadu government aims to implement this scheme in 207 villages of Tirunelveli district before 2026.
“Every resident of these 207 villages will get benefited in one way or other under the scheme as we intend to revive agricultural and other allied livelihood operations in these hamlets,” said Mr. Samayamoorthy.
In Iraippuvaari village near Nanguneri, he inspected work on transforming the hitherto rain-fed arid land into cultivable land by ensuring irrigation facility. As per the plan, the rain-fed lands belonging to different farmers would be made into small clusters for which a common irrigation facility – deep borewell or open well - would be created. Or, a pond or tank for storing rainwater during monsoon would be created for recharging groundwater and ensuring water for irrigation.
“Our objective is to bring the hitherto unused lands under cultivation by ensuring water supply. So, the fallow farmlands can be irrigated with the newly-created water source with micro irrigation facilities to increase agricultural production,” Mr. Samayamoorthy said.
The State government plans to increase use of solar pumps in this venture to provide water for irrigation. Moreover, proper marketing facility to sell the harvested crop or making value-addition in the agricultural produce will be ensured through a range of assistances. Apart from this, dairy farmers would be encouraged to increase milk production through loans for buying milch animals.
He also urged the officials to popularise the scheme among farmers by keeping banners in villages and other places where the people would gather in large numbers. “The success of this programme lies in preventing the rural population from migrating to towns and cities in search of livelihood,” Mr. Samayamoorthy said.
Collector V. Vishnu, Joint Director of Agriculture Gajendra Pandian and other senior officials were present during the inspection.
