Awareness-cum-Training Campaign for Enhancement of Tribal Income (ATCETI-25) organized

Awareness-cum-Training Campaign for Enhancement of Tribal Income (ATCETI-25) organized

7^th February 2025, Coimbatore

ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, in association with ICAR-KVK, Palakkad organized an ‘Awareness cum Training Campaign for Enhancement of Tribal Income’ (ATCETI @ Attappady) today at ICAR-SBI’s Research Centre in Agali, Attappady, Kerala. The campaign included training sessions to enhance tribal income, input distribution, quiz & poster competitions for tribal school children, and millet recipe competitions for tribal women.

Inaugurating the campaign, Dr V. Venkatasubramanian, Director, ICAR- Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (Zone XI), Bengaluru, briefed the role of ICAR-KVKs in enhancing farmers' incomes across the country. Listing out the initiatives of ICAR-KVK, Palakkad in Attappady hills, he called upon the tribals of the region to make use of the millet processing unit, set up in the region.

Dr P. Govindaraj, Director, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, reiterated the activities taken up at the Institute’s Agali Research center for the benefit of the tribals such as the ‘Campaign on ‘nutri-garden and tree plantation’ and the Campaign on ‘getting organic certification’ that included demonstrations on preparation of organic inputs. The Institute’s tribal development initiatives through the DAPSTC (Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribe Component) project have been recognized by the Salem District administration during the Republic Day Celebrations held at Salem recently, he added.

Dr R. Selvarajan, Director, ICAR-NRC on Banana, Tiruchirappalli, stated that over 45 by-products can be obtained from banana crop. He urged the farmers to take up cultivation of ‘special’ banana varieties such as Manoranjitham variety of Kolli hills, for tapping the market effectively.

Pamphlets on Mushroom cultivation to improve tribal income, Backyard poultry, and Fruit & vegetable processing were released.

After the training sessions focused on improving tribal income, felicitated by Smt C.R. Rekha, Assistant Director, Agriculture in Agali, various items were distributed to the tribals from 10 different settlements. These items included one-month-old chicks, first-aid boxes, powder jaggery, wild boar repellent, and tissue culture banana seedlings. The settlements that benefited from this distribution were Kalkandiyur, Bodichalla, Moolakkombu, Koodanchalla, Vellamari, Chavadiyur, Koodapatti, Sambarkodu, Omapodiyur, and Thayamoor/Oothukuzhi.

Institutions such as ICAR-KVK, Palakkad, Department of Agriculture Development & Farmers’ welfare, Govt of Kerala, Kudumbasree, Attappady Agriculture Producers Cooperative Society Ltd., and Attappady Tribal Farmers Association for Millets had displayed their technologies, information on schemes and products at the campaign venue.

Over 300 tribal farmers in the region participated and benefitted from the campaign.

(Source: ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore)