GO passed to supply veggie seeds kits

A Government Order (GO) was passed by the Agriculture Department on Friday to encourage production of vegetables by residents and farmers in rural areas at an outlay of Rs 3 crore. Under the scheme, 100 vegetable kits would be distributed to every panchayat at 100 per cent subsidy by Horticulture Department.

Each kit will contain seven different kinds of vegetable seeds like lady’s finger, moringa, amaranthus, tomato, chilli, brinjal, avarai, bitter gourd, pumpkin, bottle gourd and ribbed gourd. The total weight of the kit will be 12 grams and each seed will be of 1 to 2 grams in quantity.

The total seeds required for the scheme will be 14,400 kgs and 15,820 hectares will be covered under the scheme. The total vegetable production expected under the scheme is 4,37,440 metric tonnes.

A volunteer from each Panchayat will be identified as ‘Thottakalai Thozhan’ (meaning friend of Horticulture) to create awareness and facilitate rural people in growing vegetables for their own consumption. The officials of Horticulture Department will also coordinate with Thottakalai Thozhan for identification of beneficiaries for effective implementation of the scheme.

In total, 12 lakh seed kits would be distributed in 12,620 panchayats in the state and cost of each seed kit is Rs 25.

Tamil Nadu produces 14,602 metric tonnes of vegetables per day but the required production is 18,913 metric tonnes. The new scheme will reduce the deficit of vegetable production and add nutritional value to the food consumed by the people.