COIMBATORE: The Farmers Association (non-political) urged the agricultural department to update fertiliser availability in each primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) and private retails shops through the Uzhavan app daily. In a letter sent to the Agricultural Department by Farmers Association (non political), they said that farmers could not get an update of fertiliser availability periodically.
“To control diverting fertilisers, which are supplied by the government at subsidised rate for agricultural purposes, to the black market, we have been demanding to update availability of fertilisers at PACS and private retail shops through the ‘Uzhavan App’ which was developed by the agricultural department for providing such essential information to farmers.
After consistent demands, the department has started updating fertilisers’ availability in the retail market through the application for the past two years,” said P Kandhasamy, general secretary of Farmers Association (non political). He said that this was lacking as the information is only being updated once in ten days. “If the department updates details every day, irregularities would be prevented in fertiliser trade and it would benefit farmers who are in need,” he added.
An agricultural department official said, “We have taken up the farmers’ concern to higher authorities as the application is updated from Chennai. We update the details of stock in the district daily and maintain records.”