NAGAPATTINAM: The government, in its previous agriculture budget, announced a Rs 1,000 crore plan to set up an agro-industrial corridor in the Cauvery delta zone between Tiruchy and Nagapattinam. A detailed project report was prepared last year.
However, lack of announcements on it like the agro-industries that would come up in Nagapattinam, in Tuesday's agriculture budget, has irked farmers. "Due to lack of industrial development in Nagapattinam, thousands of youth from farm families are either working in garment manufacturing units in Tiruppur or are moving to Gulf nations to do menial jobs. Setting up of agro-industries in the district is imperative to creating employment opportunities," said M Prakash, a farmer representative.
Notably, after the Tamil Nadu Protected Special Agricultural Zone Act was implemented in 2020, the ONGC stopped drilling activities in delta districts. Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited's (CPCL) industrial expansion is still on in the district.
Although farmers have sought product processing, farm equipment manufacturing and fertiliser units, which would directly benefit them, there are no agro-indsutries in the district, at present, apart from a fruit pulp manufacturing unit, which was started by a farmer-producer organisation in Kameswaram in 2019.
"Fertiliser and farm machinery manufacturing units can provide boost to employment. Value addition and marketing will also improve farm productivity," said 'Cauvery' V Dhanbalan, a farmer leader associated with Kaviri Vivasaayigal Paathukaapu Sangam.
Meanwhile, in Tuesday' budget, the government announced creation of infrastructure facilities for extracting economically valuable export oriented compounds from agricultural produce and biomass in the agro-industrial corridor at Thanjavur.