Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam   

NFSM bogged down in Nagapattinam

NAGAPATTINAM: The National Food Security Mission planned as an urgent intervention to increase productivity in districts with productivity below the national average is bogged down in field realities in Nagapattinam.

The NFSM is based on “location-specific” intervention. Under NFSM-Rice, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) mode of paddy cultivation should be propagated in upland conditions and areas with adequate groundwater.

Nagapattinam is essentially a low-lying district with only a few areas such as Mayiladuthurai block conducive for SRI cultivation because of availability of groundwater. In Vedaranyam and Thalainayar blocks, direct sowing is being practised. Besides, SRI demands 1 cm of water on the field, which would mean water replenishment every two days. But with the fields dependent on opening of waters from the Vennar division every seven days, this becomes difficult.

Given this reality, under the NFSM all 11 blocks in Nagapattinam have each been allotted 3,100 cono-weeders (the equipment used for de-weeding and multiplying the number of tillers) under SRI much to the grouse of the farmers.

Officials say “farmers are too lazy” to try alternatives, but cono-weeders are not conducive for Nagapattinam’s clayey soil. Besides, these cono-weeders that cost Rs.600 with a subsidy component of Rs.300 are available in the market for Rs.300. The agricultural depots here are stacked with visibly poor-quality cono-weeders that farmers are unwilling to buy and the subsidy stands locked.

Under the NFSM, benefits of subsidy have become a casualty. According to farmers, subsidy has become a euphemism for the implement suppliers to quote higher prices siphoning off its benefits. Like cono-weeders, other implements such as power tillers and hand-sprayers are quoted at higher prices than those in districts outside of the NFSM. “Hand-sprayers that are available for Rs.1,300 at TCMF [Tamil Nadu Co-operative Marketing Federation] are given at a subsidy for Rs.1,690 by the Agricultural Department,” says Kaveri Danapalan of Cauvery Farmers Protection Association and a member of District Food Security Mission Executive Committee (DFSMEC). Similarly, power tillers that are supplied at Rs.45,000 subsidy and Rs.90,000 as beneficiary contribution, the cost is Rs.10,000 higher under the NFSM, Ms.Danapalan says.

Cutting across associations and affiliations, the farmers here feel that the implements and inputs are thrust from above. Department officials, who did not want to be named, state that decisions, inputs and their manufacturers are decided in Chennai and district officials are left to implement them.

Under the NFSM guidelines, DFSMEC with departmental representatives and progressive farmers, among others, will monitor the mission. However, in reality, progressive farmers are in a pitched battle with the department stating that only one meeting was held under NFSM and beneficiary selection has been arbitrary.

The NFSM had mandated productivity increase in districts with productivity lower than the national average as per the 2003-04 statistics. According to the Agricultural Commissioner, Kosalaraman, districts which had less than 50,000 ha under cultivation were brought under the scheme. “Performance is based on the area brought under cultivation,” he says.

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