TN looking at proposal to reap foreign exchange through agriculture corridors

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu is working on a proposal to convert 15 per cent cultivable
area in the state into agriculture corridor, according to Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University vice-chancellor and member (agriculture and
irrigation) State Planning Commission of the state, K Ramasamy.

Speaking to Express on the sidelines of a silver jubilee symposium on
‘Enhancing and Sustaining Agriculture Productivity for Food and
Nutrition Security’, Ramasamy said the plan to have such corridor is
to earn foreign exchange by exporting fruits and vegetables.

He said the proposal has identified the southern Tamil Nadu belt
besides Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri corridor and other areas and convert
them into agriculture corridor.

This also comes in the wake of Union government allocating Rs 2,000
crore for food processing sector to set up mega food parks, which aims
at providing modern infrastructure facilities for food processing
industries along the value chain from farm to market.

Ramasamy also highlighted that the state foodgrain production shot up
in the last three years despite failure of monsoon. “This is mainly
due to timely supply of seeds besides sowing drought resistant
varieties,” he said.

He also hit out at policy makers for going in for massive
urbanization. Currently, the percentage of urban poor in cities is 60
per cent when compared to 19 per cent in rural area. “If we remove
everyone from rural area, then the urban poverty rate would increase
further,” said Ramasamy.

He also stated that the state has 81.9 lakh land owners and of which
92 per cent have small lands worth 1.28 acres. “The irony is most of
mechanized technology including tractors for irrigation is developed
for land holding worth 100 acres as such the Indian farmers never
benefit from it,”  said Ramasamy.