Comments
Though not on Facebook and Twitter as yet, but through the Web site, >www.tn.gov.in/spc , the State Planning Commission is inviting suggestions from stakeholders and people across the globe for consideration as inputs in the planning process.
Besides inviting e-suggestions, the members of the State Planning Commission are also doing the rounds by meeting people from various walks of life, including farmers, tribals, NGOs, industrialists and disabled youth to collate their views.
The first of such regional consultation (for the XII Five Year Plan) meeting was held at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University — the partner institution — early this week.
Breeding policy for cattle
The emphasis was towards a breeding policy for cattle, said the Vice-Chairperson of SPC, Ms Santha Sheela Nair.
Sharing details of the discussion Ms Nair said, “There was a lot of emphasis for retaining the genetic material of the Kangeyam cattle breed and the flora and fauna of this region. Villagers pointed out that as a result of cross-breeds, the genetic material of the Kangeyam cattle was being lost.
Besides preserving the genetic material of the cattle, there is also a need to preserve the environment in which these cattle are reared/ grown.”
“We have to make provision for preserving and conserving the genetic material — both in plants and animal life,” she added.
She conceded that transfer of technology from the lab to land was still a challenge and stressed the need to look at agriculture, not just from the point of view of crop production, but in its entirety.
“Agriculture and animal husbandry are important to enhance farm income. The new element in the suggestion that we want to make is farm-based plan by going to the micro level of the individual farm and seeing how every farm could be made a self sustaining proposition. The challenge would be in maximising the output from every unit of land.”
Suggestions regarding land use policy, dryland farming, precision farming, post harvest technologies, marketing nuances of agricultural produce, micro irrigation, energy conservation etc kept pouring, she said.
Reiterating the Chief Minister Dr J. Jayalaithaa's vision of making Tamil Nadu the top State in the country in growth, Ms Nair said top priority would be given to agriculture with a growth target of 4 per cent for doubling food production and enhancing farmers income two-three times. Special focus would also be on industry including small, micro, medium and the infrastructure sector, education and health.
Steering committees
SPC has constituted 15 steering committees and 47 working groups comprising stakeholders, domain experts, community-based organisations and policy planners for formulating the plan document.
The next meeting is scheduled at Madurai on December 5, followed by a meeting at Tirunelveli on Dec 7; at Cuddalore on Dec 13 and Trichy on Dec 15. The plan document is expected to be finalised by end January 2012.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.