The district panchayat, along with the Agriculture Department, opened a vegetable-seed-vending machine at the Jerome Nagar commercial complex in the city on Thursday. The machine was formally launched by P.K. Gurudasan, MLA.
Seeds of ten different vegetables can be bought using the machine.
Each packet is priced at Rs.10. Deputy Director (Agriculture) R. Pradeep Naik said that each variety of seed was given a code that was displayed on the machine.
After inserting a Rs.10-currency note into the machine slot, the code of the desired seed had to be selected. The machine had the capacity to store 1,155 seed packets at a time.
The machine would be constantly refilled in accordance with the sale.
Mr. Naik said that only quality seeds produced at government agricultural farms would be sold through the vending machine.
District panchayat president S. Jayamohan said the venture was part of a district panchayat programme to make the district self-sufficient in organic vegetables.
The project was meant to promote backyard farms, Mr. Naik said.
