CHENNAI: Giving effect to the announcement made by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami recently, the state government has launched a special scheme for providing incentives to farmers who cultivate vegetables during the off-season. The farmers will get an incentive of Rs 2,500 per hectare.
To meet the daily dietary requirement of vitamins and minerals, a minimum of 100 g of fruits and 300 g of vegetables are required. The scheme aims at ensuring the availability of important vegetables to consumers throughout the year, official sources said.
Farmers availing the subsidy under the crop incentive scheme should not claim the subsidy under the component vegetable area expansion programme (AEP) through regular schemes operated by the Department of Horticulture and Plantation crops and vice versa.
To avail subsidy under this scheme, farmers should cultivate vegetables during the off-season so that the crops are harvested at a time when there is less availability in the market. Farmers can apply to block level officials of the Department of Horticulture by furnishing the details of seed/planting material bills of vegetable crops, adangal/e-adangal copy along with field photos. Incentives will be given to farmers based on the area cultivated up to a maximum of two hectares.
Farmers can apply through the Uzhavan app to avail the incentives under the Horticulture Crop Incentive Scheme. They are requested to approach officials of the horticulture department in their locality for information regarding season, crop and other details.