TNAU Guideing Puducherry's Precision Farming
Puducherry chief Minister N Rangasamy on Friday presented a tax-free budget of Rs 3,333.24 crore for 2008-2009. Rangasamy, who holds the finance portfolio, told the state Assembly the gross estimate included Rs 1,750 crore for plan expenditure and Rs 1,553.40 crore for non-plan expenditure, besides Rs 29.84 crore under central sponsored schemes. He said the central grant would be Rs 703.05 crore, while Rs 1,225.79 crore would be by way of loan from various sources and Rs 1,404.40 crore would be from the own resources of the union territory.Precision farming might be taken up in around 1,000 hectares over five years
The government has introduced precision farming to drastically reduce input cost and enhance farm income through better yields. He said precision farming might be taken up in around 1,000 hectares over five years, for which Rs 2 crore had been earmarked. The outlay would be raised depending on the utilisation of funds. The scheme would be implemented with the guidance of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, he said. Procedures would be simplified to sanction loans to small and marginal farmers through cooperative institutions, he said. Rs 20 crore would be released in 2008-2009 by the state cooperative bank.
The interest rate for loans released by village cooperative agricultural credit societies to farmers would be reduced from 7% to 4%. The state cooperative housing federation would disburse Rs 30 crore worth loans in 2008-2009 to benefit around 1000 members. As many as 21,500 families under the below poverty line have been covered under the free supply of cooking gas cylinders after the scheme was implemented during 2005-2006.
