ICAR – Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR-SBI), Coimbatore in collaboration with Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission, Salem conducted a “Tribal Nutrition Awareness cum Training Campaign’ and launched its DAPSTC (Scheduled Tribe Component) project in Salem district, in the collectorate premises on 12 March 2024.
Thanking the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute for choosing Salem district to implement the project, Dr R. Brindha Devi IAS., Collector, Salem district, in her inaugural address outlined the importance of value-addition in tribal empowerment. Stressing the importance of ensuring community participation in development projects, she assured that the line departments serving in the district for tribal development would assist ICAR-SBI during project-implementation.
Releasing the extension pamphlets published by ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Dr G.Hemaprabha, Director of ICAR-SBI, in her Presidential address mentioned that awareness of tribal folk on Central Government & State Government – sponsored development /social welfare schemes needs to be improved. Highlighting the success stories of tribal farmers who had won the Central-Government initiated ‘Plant Genome awards’ that are being given for conserving plant agro-biodiversity, she said that the tribals should realize the importance of education, health and well-being of tribal women and children.
Mentioning that Salem district tops in tribal population in the state of Tamil Nadu, Dr. D. Puthira Prathap, Principal Scientist and Nodal Officer, STC , in his introductory remarks, said that initially, a ‘needs assessment’ was conducted by the Institute among the Malayali tribes belonging to five tribal settlements viz., ‘Molayanoor & Vilampattu in Chinna Kalvarayan hills-Vadakku nadu panchayat and Thaloor, Valoothu & Pallikkadu of Aladipatti panchayat in order to identify their ‘wants’. Accordingly , interventions were planned to promote sustainable livelihood systems for the tribal people through entrepreneurship development, for overall empowerment.
The campaigns , with tailor-made interventions, will continue to be held in the tribal settlements and all households in these settlements will receive farm tools, radio sets, household items , kitchen garden kits, improved varieties of ragi (Pearl millet) & samai (Little millet) and coconut seedlings, he added.
Shri.S.Singaram, Joint Director of Agriculture, Salem District Shri. P.Venkatesan, Assistant Project Officer, Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission, Shri N. Thiruverangan, Block Development Officer, Ayodhyapattinam, Shri. Shri. M.Elumalai, President, Aladipatti Panchayat, Shri. T. Venkatesan, President, Chinnakalrayan hills-Vadakku naadu Panchayat and senior officials from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University & All India Radio, Dharmapuri interacted with the participating tribals during the inaugural session and the training session that followed.
(Source: PIB)
