If everything goes well, Tamil Nadu will boast of its eco-friendly ‘organic villages.’ As part of its efforts to promote organic farming, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced five model organic villages in Vellore, Erode, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai and Krishnagiri districts. The eco-friendly initiative would be set up at Rs 10 lakh each, chief minister J Jayalalithaa said in a statement in the assembly. “To strengthen integrated pest management, 150 eco-friendly villages will also be set up,” she said. The announcement came in the wake of concerns over the deterioration of organic content in soil.

According to sources, the programme under the Centre’s National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture would ensure the five villages adhered to no-pesticide, no-insecticide concept to promote organic farming. “Based on these pilot studies, the number of the villages will be raised,” said a senior government official. Jayalalithaa also announced seven new liquid bio-fertilizer production units and two organic fertilizer testing units, besides a laboratory complex in the department of organic agriculture at the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. Incidentally, out of 17,500 fertilizer samples tested by the fertilizer control laboratories in the state, 635 samples were found non-standard and legal action was initiated against the defaulters, said a policy note tabled by the agriculture department last week.

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