Policy Note 2018-2019 INDEX Sl.No. Contents Page No. Introduction 1-25 1. Agriculture 26-165 2. Horticulture and Plantation Crops 166-228 3. Agricultural Engineering 229-270 Agricultural Education, Research 4. 271-298 and Extension Education 5. Sugar 299-303 Seed Certification and Organic 6. 304-324 Certification Agricultural Marketing and 7. 325-392 Agri.Business Tamil Nadu Watershed 8. 393-410 Development Agency (TAWDEVA) 9. Demand 411-414 Conclusion 415-417 INTRODUCTION l–V d… Sj[ Obdq Sl… Slwm bxj" (((i( : 1031) Agriculture, though laborious, is the most excellent (form of labour); for people, though they go about (in search of various employments), have at last to resort to the farmer. My Government will continue to accord the same high priority it accorded in the last five years to agriculture, the premier sector for the country’s economic development, providing livelihood for the majority. Agricultural production can be improved by addressing the productivity gap and 1 through value addition. We have also set ourselves a goal of increasing the farmers' per capita income by two to three hundred per cent within five years. My Government proposes to achieve this through effective dissemination and adoption of advanced technology to increase productivity of crops, farm based interventions for mixed farming and by convergence of schemes to ensure integrated farm development. - Honourable Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Agriculture is the livelihood for every farmer and consequently the economy of the State is primarily focused on agriculture. The role of agriculture in shaping the economy could be reflected from the large proportion of population that depends on agriculture for their livelihood and the significant contribution of agriculture to the State’s income. Due to its predominance, 2 any positive and negative aspects of developments in the State could be linked with the performance of the agricultural sector. Therefore, even a slight setback in agriculture sector wields an influence on overall economic growth. Hence, rapid agricultural growth continues to be the key to poverty alleviation and overall economic development. The farmer welfare-centred approach to agricultural development can empower the rural masses with higher income and employment and make inclusive development a reality. Hence, in policies of poverty alleviation and enhancing sustainable development, agriculture has enormous potential. Government of Tamil Nadu, to attain increase in agricultural production in rural areas especially doubling the production based on market driven demand, has formulated various innovative strategies and 3 disseminated better cultivation practices and crop oriented front end technological interventions such as Collective farming approach by involving Small and Marginal Farmers, integrated approach to enrich the soil fertility; adoption of water conservation measures; encouraging farm mechanisation; Agricultural Services through Information Technology interventions; post-harvest management of crop produce and interlinking agricultural markets through eNAM. These approaches are being implemented in all crop production aspects. In view of the various challenges to Agricultural operations, the Government of Tamil Nadu is taking concerted efforts and relentless measures to bring about perceptible changes and overall development to tackle these bottlenecks and pave way for a sustainable 4 Agriculture. In the coming years, the food production is going to be more challenging due to burgeoning population, difficulty in horizontal expanse of land resources, escalating cost of critical inputs, climate variability, environmental degradation, dwindling production resources, labour scarcity and volatile market prices etc., However, the Government of Tamil Nadu which is unfazed by all these constraints is formulating crop specific, season specific, soil specific, climate specific, farm specific approaches for making Agriculture, a more dynamic and climate resilient to ensure food and nutritional security. The perspective vision "Second Green Revolution" in Tamil Nadu is gaining momentum in the recent years. The Government of Tamil Nadu is in the forefront in formulating comprehensive policy framework among all the States by reinforcing farmer-friendly strategies 5 to increase cropped area; collective cultivation of consumer preferred crops, Specific innovation in Crop production technology, Soil based fertiliser recommendation and application methods, Water saving practices such as Micro Irrigation, System of Rice Intensification(SRI), Changes in selection of cropping pattern to ward off the vagaries of monsoon and reducing input cost fortified with Business vision in crop production, mechanising agricultural operations to make farming smarter by saving time and cost; enriching farming knowledge and empowering farming community through use of ICT; establishing well structured marketing system and strengthening extension services for large-scale dissemination of productivity- increasing technologies and capacity building activities, enabling the State to be on high growth trajectory in Agriculture. As a result, the Government of Tamil Nadu has made impressive 6 strides in agricultural sector and the State has achieved two-fold increase in food grain production since the launch of Second Green Revolution in 2011-12. The technological breakthrough in increasing the productivity and the cultivable area has removed the impasse in Agriculture production and the State surpassed 100 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Food Grain production in 2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. The efforts of the Government to introduce bouquet of frontier technologies, quality seeds, bio-fertilizers helped to achieve a quantum jump in food grain production and the State was honoured with “Krishi Karman" award for having attained total food grain production of 101.52 Lakh Metric Tonnes by Government of India during the year 2011-12. Since the food grain production surpassed 100 Lakh Metric 7 Tonnes, the Government of Tamil Nadu was given “Krishi Karman" award for the best performance in pulses production of 6.14 Lakh Metric Tonnes during 2013-14 and for coarse cereals production of 40.79 Lakh Metric Tonnes for the year 2014-15. The exemplary initiatives of the State Government in spearheading food grain production and welfare of the farming community has resulted in bagging the "Krishi Karman" award the fourth time for the best performance in Total Food grain production of 113.85 Lakh Metric Tonnes during 2015-16. The award has been presented and felicitated by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India on 17.03.2018 at New Delhi. The State has also bagged the “State Agriculture Leadership Award 2013”, “Food Production Program Leadership Award 8 2015” and “Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2016” from the leading magazine, “Agriculture Today” and “Best Big Agriculture State Award” from the popular magazine “India Today” for its commendable performance of the State across the nation. Sustaining the momentum, the Government of Tamil Nadu which has the privilege of adopting of Information Technology (IT) based Agriculture in an innovative way, has been awarded with the “National Gold Award for e-Governance” for the year 2014-15 by Government of India for its innovative spirits of the State. Further, “Comprehensive Input Supply Management System” , one of the best practices and models for e-governance introduced by Agriculture Department in Tamil Nadu has been presented with the prestigious National level “Skoch Platinum Award – 9 2016” for excellent and efficient implementation of programmes and service delivery. Recognizing the sincere efforts taken by the Department of Agriculture for effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in Tamil Nadu during 2016-17, the Department of Agriculture was honoured with the Chief Minister’s Best Practices Award on the eve of 71 st Independence Day Celebrations on 15.08.2017 . Genesis of the Department An independent Department of Agriculture was established in 1882 based on the recommendations of the Indian Famine Commission, 1880. In 1904, the Directorate of Agriculture was carved out as an independent unit with Director of Agriculture and necessary supporting staff. In 1905, the Agricultural College which was under the control of 10 Directorate of Public Instruction was annexed to the Department and presently functioning as Agricultural University. Several changes took place in its organizational setup owing to bifurcation of the State, Districts and Taluks etc., Snapshots of Tamil Nadu Agriculture Tamil Nadu is geographically located between 8°5' and 13°35' North latitude and between 76°15’ and 80°20' East longitude. As a result of this geographical position, Tamil Nadu enjoys semi-arid to dry sub humid climate, which permits higher crop productivity under irrigation. The total geographical area of Tamil Nadu is 130.33 Lakh Hectare which constitutes 4 per cent of the Nation’s geographical area (11 th Largest State) with coastal line of 1,076 km. Tamil Nadu is the seventh most populous state with 6 percent of the Nation’s population. Tamil Nadu is one of the most water 11 starved States endowed with only 3 per cent of the nation's water resources putting high stress on irrigation water availability and vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations causing uncertainty in Agriculture production. The Tamil Nadu land use pattern as per the latest statistical report (2016-17) is given below: Table 1.1 : Land Use Pattern in Tamil Nadu S. Details Area % with No (Lakh referece to Ha) Geographical area 1 Forest 21.57 16.55 2 Net Cropped Area (*) 43.47 33.35 3 Area under Misc. Tree crops 2.32 1.78 4 Permanent Pastures 1.08 0.83 5 Current fallow 13.61 10.44 6 Other fallow 18.47 14.17 7 Culturable Waste 3.23 2.48 8 Land put to non agricultural 22.01 16.89 use 9 Barren and unculturable land 4.58 3.51 Total Geographical Area 130.33 100.00 Cropping Intensity (%) 118 - (*) Difference between Gross Cropped Area (51.29 Lakh Hectare) and Area sown more than once (7.82 Lakh Hectare) 12 According to the Agriculture censes 2010-11, the number of operational land holders in the State is 81.18 lakh, operating cultivable land of 64.88 Lakh Hectare.