- Forecast warns 12 Tamil Nadu districts face severe impact from super El Nino event
- Tamil Nadu Agri University’s contingency plans shared with district collectors for action
- Eight new agri-extension centres with 300 MT godowns planned across Tamil Nadu
Forecast says that due to the super El Nino event, 12 districts of Tamil Nadu are likely to be affected more, state Agriculture Minister R Vinoth said on Thursday in the State Assembly.
Presenting the TVK regime's first agriculture budget, Vinoth said the budget has been prepared following consultations with stakeholders and farm schemes in vogue will continue to be implemented in addition to new initiatives.
On the super El Nino event, the minister said that efforts have been stepped up to tackle it in the state by implementing Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's action plan.
The minister said that due to this phenomenon, severe impact is anticipated across the country, particularly during the Kuruvai season (June-July-early August).
"It has been predicted that 12 districts in Tamil Nadu will experience a severe impact. Hence, the District Agricultural Contingency Plan prepared by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for all districts have been communicated to the district collectors, and all steps have been taken up to implement the contingency measures holistically," he said.
In order to enable farmers to access all schemes and technical advisory services of the Agriculture - Farmers Welfare Department under one roof, eight new buildings for Integrated Agricultural Extension Centres, each with a 300-metric tonne capacity godown, will be constructed in Tiruvannamalai, Katpadi and Gudiyatham (Vellore), Musiri (Tiruchirappalli), Narikudi (Virudhunagar), Bodinayakanur (Theni), Kayathar (Thoothukudi) and Thondamuthur (Coimbatore).
These centres will be established at a total outlay of Rs 27.82 crore from the union and state government funds, he said.
In response to the long-standing demand of the farming community, tarpaulins will be distributed to 43,500 farmers during 2026-27 to prevent post-harvest loss and facilitate drying and safe storage of agricultural produce from rain and shine. A sum of Rs 10 crore will be allocated from the State fund for this scheme.
In order to encourage small and marginal farmers, State-level crop yield competitions will be conducted during 2026-27 in the name of "Makkal Sevagar Anjalai Ammal".
The competition will be held for 10 crops, including millets, pulses and oilseeds and the top three farmers achieving the highest yields in each crop category will be awarded with a prize amount of Rs 2.50 lakh, Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs1 lakh respectively. The prize amount will be given to 30 farmers for which a sum of Rs 50 lakh will be allocated from the state fund.
As a part of the State's effort to popularise organic farming, the "Nammazhvar Award" will be awarded during 2026-27 to the best 5 organic farmers recognizing their excellence in organic farming practices.
A cash prize of Rs 2 lakh along with a certificate of appreciation will be given for which an amount of Rs 11 lakh will be allocated from the state fund.
The minister began his address by lauding the chief minister as a 'suit wearing farmer' and when he went on to shower more praise on Vijay, main opposition DMK raised objection.
Speaker JCD Prabhakar intervened and asked the opposition members to be calm and told the minister to stick to the agri-budget.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
