Department of Horticulture and Plantation Crops

The Nilgiris District is situated at the Northwestern part of the State and Western Ghats and surrounded by the Coimbatore and Erode District, Kerala State and Karnataka State on Eastern, Western and Northern side, respectively.

The Nilgiris is a horticultural district which occupies a special significance in hilly regions of Tamil Nadu. The Geographical area of the district is 2545 square Kilometer consists of 6 taluks and unique feature is that 56% of the total area is under natural vegetation. The entire district is situated between 900-2636 meters above MSL. The average rainfall for the district is 1522.7 mm per annum.

The Nilgiris is a summer resort for the tourists which attract the entire world. It is the home for all hilly zone cultivated crops such as vegetables, fruits, flowers, spices and plantation crops. The cultivation is done mainly in terraced lands and sometimes even on narrow slopes in some villages. The temperate crops such as tea, potato, cabbage, carrot, beans, plum, peach, pear etc., are grown in the higher elevation, Mandarin orange, Coffee are grown in mid-elevation and tropical crops like clove, nutmeg, Pepper, Ginger and fruits like Durian, Litchi, Rambutan and Mango Steen are grown in the lower elevation of this District.

The cultivation of Horticulture crops is being practised in the following 3 main seasons.

Irrigated
Main
Autumn

The Vegetable crops can be grown in all three seasons.

There are 83,125 farm families, are cultivating various crops in an area of 73406.00 Ha during the year 2019-2020.

It is being a Horticulture Department; the following schemes are implemented for the benefit of Nilgiris farmers.

Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
Micro Irrigation – (MI) Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)
Supplementary Water Management Activities (SWMA)
Revamped Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (RPMFBY)
Collective farming
Special Area Development Programme (SADP)
National Agricultural Development Programme (NADP)
Integrated Horticulture Development Scheme (IHDS)

1. Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)

Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture is being implemented in the Nilgiris District to promote Holistic growth of Horticulture sector by various activities that includes distribution of planting materials, Creation of water resources, Protected cultivation, Promotion of INM/IPM, Provision of apiary units, horticulture mechanization, Post-harvest management and provision of training to farmers. Apart these in view to promote organic farming in the Nilgiris subsidies for the construction of permanent vermi compost units and purchase of vermi beds and incentives are given to farmers who are following organic cultivation.

2. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana has been launched with a motto of “Per Drop More Crop” through manipulation of irrigation supply chain by providing accessories for precise irrigation methodologies.

Effective use of available water plants by adopting sprinkler system is being provided at following subsidy pattern in the Nilgiris District.

100% subsidy to small and marginal farmers.
75% subsidy to large farmers.
Subsidy is extended to tea growers of the district.

3. Supplementary Water Management Activities (SWMA)

This scheme i.e., Supplementary Water Management Activities is being provided as assistance to the farmers who are beneficiaries of PMKSY. This scheme is eligible only for the farmers who are availing subsidy under PMKSY.

Components under SWMA:

Shallow tube well/Borewell : Rs.25,000/unit/person
Diesel motor/pump set : Rs.15,000/unit/person
Conveyance pipe : Rs.10,000/person
Storage structure : Rs.40,000/person

4. Revamped Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (RPMFBY)

Revamped Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana is being implemented in the district with a view of providing crop insurance for the notified crops in order to minimize financial losses occurring due to natural calamities. In this district, crops like Potato, Banana, Garlic, Carrot, Cabbage, Tapioca and Ginger crops are notified under this scheme to avail the insurances. Herein focus is given to ensure specific notified crops in the notified village only. Potato, Garlic, Carrot, Cabbage are notified to be insured in Udhagai, Coonoor and Kotagiri Blocks whereas Banana, Tapioca and Ginger crops are notified in Gudalur Block.

5. Collective farming

The concept of collective farming is to identify small and marginal farmers in a contiguous area and grouped as farmer’s Interest Groups (FIG) with 20 farmers. 5 FIG’s would be integrated into Farmer Producer Group (FPG) with 100 farmers. FIG and FPG are encouraged to adopt collective cultivation, collective purchasing of inputs to access credit facilities and market linkages.

In the Nilgiris, 340 FIG’s and 68 FPG’s were formed under Collective farming till 2020-2021. A Corpus fund of Rs.5 lakh is being provided to each FPG after approval of the Project Implementation Plan of FPG by the District Collector / Chairman of DLC. In the Nilgiris, all 48 FPG’s were federated into 3 FPO (Farmer Producer Organization) by the Agricultural Marketing Department.

6. Special Area Development Programme (SADP)

Under the SADP scheme, subsidies are provided for the farmers to procure tea clones @ 50% subsidy.

7. National Agricultural Development Programme (NADP)

To promote organic farming in the District incentives and subsidies are provided to the farmer who is growing greens, cabbage cauliflower, beans and gourd organically under this scheme. Apart these, financial assistance is also provided for farmers who are enrolled for organic certification.

8. Integrated Horticulture Development Scheme (IHDS)

Horticulture Department of this district has planned to bring more area under fruits and Traditional vegetable cultivation. Under this scheme, farmers have been provided with planting material of Lime, avocado, Passion Fruit, Traditional beans, Chow Chow, inputs for INM/IPM etc., at a subsidized cost.