The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday announced an overseas training programme for farmers. Under it, 150 farmers will be taken to countries like Israel, the Netherlands, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Explaining the reason for organising the tour, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister M.R.K Panneerselvam said the adoption of high-yielding technologies had resulted in high productivity in some countries. He said Tamil Nadu farmers would be eager to adopt these technologies if they got an opportunity to visit these countries. “Seeing is believing and doing is learning,” he said, announcing the allocation of ₹3 crore from the Union and State government funds for this purpose.
Mr. Panneerselvam also announced the government’s plan to launch a new portal, GRAINS (Grower Online Registration of Agriculture Input System), wherein the bank accounts and the Aadhaar numbers of landowners and cultivators and the land and crop cultivation details would be collected.
This platform, he said, would enable farmers to avail themselves of various benefits from a single source. Besides allocating ₹54 crore for reconstruction of 27 godowns in 22 regulated markets with a total capacity of 34,000 metric tonnes, the Budget proposed to renovate the regulated markets at 100 places that handled a huge quantity of produce at a cost of ₹50 crore.
As the number of farmers and consumers who used Uzhavar Sandhais increased significantly — 8,000 farmers and three lakh consumers daily — the government decided to renovate 25 Uzhavar Sandhais. They will have amenities such as drinking water and toilets. The total allocation for the plan was ₹9 crore.
The Minister said steps would be taken to secure the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) certificate for 50 Uzhavar Sandhais in the ensuing year at a cost of ₹25 lakh.
