The state will set up a highlevel committee for agriculture led by the chief secretary to review farmingrelated schemes and come up with solutions for problems challenging farmers, including market price, crop loss due to natural calamities, procurement and distribution of inputs, assessment of production of agricultural produce and future demands.
Agriculture minister M R K Panneerselvam made an announcement to this effect while presenting the agriculture budget. “This committee shall meet every month with respective secretaries and heads of agriculture and agriculture-related departments, food, animal husbandry, revenue, rural development, water resources and sugar to sort out the issues,” the minister said.
The government will set up agricultural zonal committees to support farmers based on water resources, fertility of soil and climatic conditions. These panels will consist of officials from departments of agriculture, horticulture, agricultural engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, water resources department, pollution control board, forest department, progressive farmers and environmental experts.
District collectors and related departments will hold awareness programmes among farmers to enhance the soil fertility using silt from lakes and ponds. Permission will be granted by the respective collectors and related departments.
The state allocated ₹34,220.64 crore for agriculture and related departments in the revised budget. Agriculture secretary C Samayamoorthy said the budgetary allocation for agriculture shot up by ₹1,700 crore compared to the last fiscal year and more than ₹900 crore than the interim budget presented by the previous AIADMK regime in February. “The focus is on increasing the coverage of cultivable land, dryland development, organic farming, encouraging youth to become entrepreneurs, marketing and exports,” the official said.
