Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday launched the Kalaignarin All Village Integrated Agriculture Development Programme, to be implemented at a cost of ₹227 crore aimed at benefiting over nine lakh farming families in 1,997 village panchayats across the State.The Programme would be implemented in all 12,525 village panchayats across the State during five years and would be jointly implemented by the Agriculture Department in close coordination with the Rural Development Department, Mr. Stalin said after inaugurating the scheme.Under this scheme, coconut saplings, home farming saplings, horticultural saplings, sprays needed for farming, kit for vegetable garden would be distributed and a 100% subsidy would be provided to Adi Dravida farmers for sinking wells in dry lands, employ drip irrigation, to dig farm ponds, among others, an official release said.
Setting up Farmer Producer Organisations by consolidating farmers in select villages and providing them with necessary technical expertise, would help strengthen integrated development in the farming sector, Mr. Stalin said Since Rural Development and other Departments are involved, villages would become self-sustainable and it would help in “preventing people from the rural areas moving to urban areas,” the CM said.Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare M.R.K. Panneerselvam had on August 14 last year announced on the floor of the Assembly that a new Kalaignarin All Village Integrated Agriculture Development Programme would be launched in the State aiming at fulfilling farmers’ needs and increasing their income during the next five years.Mr. Panneerselvam, Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu and senior officials were present in the inauguration event in the Secretariat, Chennai. During the first-ever agricultural budget of Tamil Nadu visionary goals were announced for overall development of the farm sector which includes achieving food security and nutritional security in the next 10 years, the budget laid special focus on the need for popularising organic farming in the State. Another important scheme announced in the agriculture budget was to train agriculture graduates as agriculture entrepreneurs. For this, capacity-building training will be imparted to students during their graduation with the help of agri business firms and alumni.