Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam on Saturday announced the creation of a gene pool of indigenous varieties of fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants once widely cultivated in Tamil Nadu.
Recalling the late naturalist Nammazhwar’s words that the “seed is the weapon”, the Minister said a gene pool would be established to preserve traditional varieties of horticultural crops at the State’s horticulture farms.
The Minister said farmers will be motivated to cultivate traditional varieties such as kannadi kathari (brinjal), aandarkulam kathari, kottampatti kathari, vari kathari, vasudevanallur kathari, pallapatti then murungai (drumstick), karumpu murungai, kuzhi thakkali, kodi thakkali, annaji thakkali, anaikomban and sivappu vendai (ladies finger). The seeds will be produced at the State’s horticultural farms and distributed to farmers.
Mr. Panneerselvam also announced that the government’s plan to create a gene pool of different kinds of spices collected from across the country. In the first phase, the gene pool will be created for important species such as pepper and nutmeg in the State’s horticulture farms in the Nilgiris, Kodaikanal, Kolli Hills, Yercaud, Courtallam and Javvadu Hill areas. The allocation for the project is ₹1 crore.
Besides announcing the renovation of Uzhavar Sandhais with digital infrastructure, electronic price display board and public address system at a cost of ₹15 crore, the Minister said four new Uzhavar Sandhais would be established in Dharmapuri, Nagapattinam, Vellore and Tirupattur districts at a cost of ₹10 crore.
He said one Uzhavar Sandhai in each district would be allowed to function in the evening for sale of millets and pulses.
