Chief General Manager of NABARD R. Sankar Narayanan inaugurated the solar drier at Sinnur near Vilaathikulam on Friday for rain-fed farmers cultivating chilli and other horticultural crops. The solar drier with 400 square feet area, costing ₹3.05 lakh, can be used for drying chilli quickly without getting polluted by dust and sand. The NABARD has released this fund from its Sinnur watershed restoration programme, costing about ₹1.73 crore.
Mr. Sankar Narayanan said the NABARD, which was funding the watershed development and restoration programmes in the places facing acute water shortage, had created the farm ponds, which were getting water during monsoons. Hence, this initiative had improved the rural livelihood as the farmers were getting improved productivity. After the development of the watersheds, these water bodies were being jointly managed by local watershed management committee so as to make it sustainable.
As part of the silver jubilee celebrations of Vidiyel Trust, which is implementing Sinnur watershed development programme and has installed the solar drier, Mr. Sankar Narayanan handed over country chicken, bio-fertilizer and tree saplings to the women self-help groups. He also reviewed the restoration of the Sinnur watershed and approved the proposal to form ‘Vidiyel Farm Producers Company Limited for cattle breeding by cattle farmers of Sinnur and adjoining villages.
On Saturday, District Revenue Officer C. Ajay Srinivasan launched the open sea cage fish framing under the ‘Integrated multi-tropic aquaculture (IMTA) farming’ at Tsunami Nagar and Pullaveli near Thoothukudi in the presence of Mr. Sankar Narayanan. This programme is being implemented jointly by NABARD and Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute’s Thoothukudi Research Station. Under this programme, beneficiary fishermen have been trained in cultivating Asian Sea Bass in two floating sea cages. 1,000 fish seeds, mussel seeds and seaweed seedling were released in each cage on the occasion.
The ICAR-CMFRI has been promoting sea cage farming of cobia and other high-value marine fishes since 2010. Further, CMFRI has developed the IMTA technology successfully demonstrated in Palk Bay, where additional revenue has been generated by integrating fish and seaweeds. It is also an eco-friendly and sustainable option that provides a steady income for the coastal fishers as an alternative livelihood option to generate additional revenue through increased yields. “Based on the success of the trial demonstration support by NABARD through the Department of Fisheries and Farmers Welfare, Thoothukudi, further expansion of IMTA farming will be provided to the interested fisher beneficiaries,” Mr. Ajay Srinivasan said.