In order to bridge the gap between farmers & officials in the village panchayats, the Tamil Nadu government has launched scheme known as ‘Uzhavar-Aluvalar Thodarbu Thittam’. The main objective of this scheme is to help in the dissemination of crop technology to farmers & get updates on the condition of crops from cultivators.

Under Uzhavar-Aluvalar Thodarbu Thittam, in each village panchayat, 10 farmers would be identified, out of whom at least 2 will be from the SC/ST communities. They will be trained in technology & other aspects of agriculture. These farmers will be either those who have already adopted latest technologies or those with the inclination to learn & will act as a ‘bridge’ between agriculture, horticulture departments & other farmers in the panchayat.

For this, a new extension system would be set up, as part of which the number of visits of the block teams to the village panchayats will be increased.

It must be noted that there will be 2 extension teams in the block. The Block Extension Team (BET) of Agriculture will have Assistant Director of Agriculture (ADA) as Head while Research Scientist of TNAU, Agriculture Officer (AO) & Deputy AO as members. For the Block Extension Team of Horticulture, a similar team which will have Assistant Director of Horticulture as head will be formed.

An order that was issued yesterday stated that “It should be ensured that each Village Panchayat is visited extensively by an Assistant Agriculture or Horticulture officer, at least once in a fortnight & by an AO / Deputy AO and HO / Deputy HO once in a month as far as possible. The local prevailing priorities / crop conditions in the Village Panchayat are to be considered while fixing the schedule”.

The details regarding these visits will be entered into a dedicated mobile app for the use of officers. Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced the scheme during his budget speech.