Precision farming in Pudukkottai dist

Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, May 27: The Centrally sponsored precision farming programme will be implemented in this district with the objective of converting the farmers into agricultural entrepreneurs, District Collector D Uthirakkumaran said.

Talking to newspersons here yesterday, he said the subsidy-linked programme, to be implemented under the National Agricultural Development Project (NADP), would cover 200 hectares.

The programme would be executed in co-ordination with the Agriculture and Horticulture departments and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), he added.

The departments would cover 90 hectares each while the remaining 20 hectares would be brought under precision farming by the TNAU, he said adding a subsidy equivalent to 50 per cent of the farming expenses or Rs 40,000, whichever was higher would be released to each of the beneficiary farmer.

Efforts would be taken to set up agricultural clinics-cum-mini soil testing laboratories under the NADP. The programme would ensure generation of job opportunities to unemployed graduates and post-graduates in agriculture, he said.

Loans from banks with a back-end subsidy of 50 per cent towards the estimate for setting up the clinic would be sanctioned to each unemployed beneficiary.

''The agri-clinic would also function as a knowledge-provider at block-levels and help effective technology transfer to increase crop productivity and per capita income of the farmers,'' he added.

UNI