Sustainable Agricultural Developments in the Nilgiris

Hubbathalai Siva, as the Founder President of NSTF society has been relentlessly working for the betterment of the farmers of The Nilgiris, Nakku Betta for the Badagas, for many years now.

NSTF in association with Nelikolu Charitable Trust has been working with The Nilgiris Small Farmers for more than 15 years and brought out many achievements in the Small Tea Growers Sector including winning historic Madras High Court Verdict for fixing Remunerative Prices for the Green Tea Leaves and establishment of District Price Monitoring Committee(DPMC ) to fix the Monthly Green Tea Leaves in advance every month.

Recently, he presented his proposals for sustainable agricultural developments and the proposal for implementation of Nilgiris Organic District Movement to the Agricultural Production Commissioner & The Principal Secretary
department of Agriculture, government of Tamil Nadu Mr.Bedi IAS at Ooty.

Sikkim is the first and only state in India which is a total Organic State in the country, so far.

His petition includes :

……. we kindly request you to take necessary actions to re-establish ICAR-KVK at Ooty either by the Dept of Horticulture or Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for imparting technical training programmes without any further delays.

Import of Carrot Seeds by TAN HODA for supply to The Nilgiris Small Farmers.

You may be aware that Carrot plays an important role in the Nilgiris Horticulture and the market retail price for quality carrot seeds is quite high, which is not at all affordable to the small farmers.

Hence, we request the government to explore the possibilities to import Carrot Seeds and supply through the Horticulture Dept at affordable prices to the Nilgiris Small Farmers.

Establishment of Complete Supply Chain Centres in The Nilgiris Vegetable Clusters

We express our gratitude to the Government of Tamil Nadu for having established Cluster-based Complete Supply Chain Vegetable Procurement and Marketing Centres in Strategic Clusters in The Nilgiris District for the benefits of Nilgiris Small Farmers.

We kindly request the government to take necessary steps to run these centres successfully and sustainably for the long term growth of Horticulture and Agriculture Crops in The Nilgiris.

Hence, in a view to bring back our age old soil fertility, we propose to the Government to take immediate and necessary steps for implementation of procedures to declare our district as ‘The Nilgiris Organic District’

The once well-established ICAR-KVK in collaboration with UPASI in Coonoor has been suddenly closed due to the reasons better known to them, there by leaving Nilgiris Small Farmers in distress.

Finally, we firmly believe that the Government would look into the above proposals and implement the same in true letter and spirit for the sustainable Development and Inclusive growth of The Nilgiris Small Farmers.

Hope Siva’s efforts, that have long term benefits to the farmers, particularly Badagas, will bear fruits in the near future and curtail the cash crop carrot cultivation culture with Pesticides, Weedicides, Fungicides that have done grave damage to the soil and eco system!