Coimbatore Collector visits farms, distributes subsidies

COIMBATORE Collector G.S. Sameeran on Saturday visited some of the farm lands that benefited under v

Collector G.S. Sameeran on Saturday visited some of the farm lands that benefited under various schemes of the State government for agricultural sector.

An official press release said the Collector visited a farm located in Mettupalayam village in Kinathukadavu block that was covered under the Sustainable Green Cover in Farm Lands scheme. The government announced the scheme last financial year where the Department gave tree seedlings (with timber value) and maintenance support for two years. In Kinathukadavu block, nearly 85 farmers received 55,095 seedlings. The aim was to motivate farmers to have green cover on the land by planting seedlings on an entire plot or on boundaries.

The Collector also visited Puravipalayam village in Pollachi north where 15 departments jointly implemented Kalaignar All Villages Integrated Agricultural Development Programme, which was also announced last year. Nearly 16 acres of contiguous fallow lands, belonging to 25 farmers, had been identified for this project. Six clusters in 37 villages were selected for the project last fiscal and the programme would be implemented in 43 villages this financial year.

In the 16 acres identified at Puravipalayam, two bore wells would be sunk free of cost. Soil samples were collected and soil health cards distributed. The farmers would be helped to create irrigation facilities and tree seedlings would be distributed. The Collector gave away pulse seed kits to these farmers. They would be helped to grow trees and inter crops.

Mr. Sameeran also visited two farm lands that had received subsidy to put drip irrigation or construct tanks to store water. In Madukkarai block, he gave away ₹5 lakh subsidy for agri implements to a farm producer group. The group had invested ₹67,000 and ₹5 lakh came as subsidy. These farmers cultivate banana, tomato and coconut and they would use the implements on their lands and rent them out to other farmers too. They would become farmer producer company.