Grievance day meeting in Tuticorin

Farmers participating in a grievance day meeting in Tuticorin on Thursday.Collector R. Palaniyandi has said that short term crop loans to the tune of Rs. 19 crore and medium term loans worth of Rs. 55 lakh would be disbursed through Primary Agriculture Co-operative Societies to farmers in the district during the current fiscal.

Similarly, a total of 820 tonnes of fertilizers would be distributed through the Public Distribution System outlets run by the Department of Co-operation during the same period.He was evaluating the performance of various departments such as Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries, Agri-engineering, Co-operation and Animal Husbandry during the current fiscal till May 31, at the Agriculture Production Committee convened by the administration here on Thursday.The Collector said that Rs 2.63 crore of short term loans and Rs. 69.64 lakh of medium term loans had been disbursed during the first two months of the current financial year.On agriculture production, he said that 4,959 tonnes of rice and 504 tonnes of pulses were produced in the district during April and May.

The production target for rice and pulses for this fiscal were set at 85,700 tonnes and 11,200 tonnes respectively. Mr. Palaniyandi said that to enhance productivity, high yielding seeds of paddy (200 tonnes), millets (24 tonnes), pulses (55 tonnes), cotton (12 tonnes), and oil seeds (29), would be distributed to the farmers at subsidised rates during the current fiscal. R. Bharat Kumar, Assistant General Manager of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, and senior officials of various departments were present.Later, answering queries of farmers at a farmers’ grievance day meeting, the Collector said that the Public Works Department was asked to prepare a proposal to seek soft loans from NABARD for desilting irrigation tanks in the district.