CHENGALPATTU: District Collector AR Rahul Nadh distributed 164 power tillers and two power weeding machines to 166 farmers at a cost of Rs 1.38 crore on behalf of Agriculture-Farmers Welfare Department in the district on Monday.

Following the current year’s welfare report of agriculture farmers stating that the welfare for the farmers is diminishing day by day in the State and the need to encourage the use of small tiller machines, out of all the villages that fall under the government’s visionary scheme ‘Kalignar’s All Village Integrated Agricultural Development Programme’, two power tiller machines per village will be provided to 2,504 villages with a subsidy of Rs 43 crore this year.

In order to implement the announcement, following the launch of this scheme by the Chief Minister on Monday in Chennai, 164 power tillers and two power weeders were given to 166 farmers engaged in agriculture on a small scale in Chengalpattu presented by the Collector in the presence of district MLA Vara lakshmi Madhusudhanan and Thiruporur MLA SS Balaji.

Assistant Collector (Training) Anand Kumar Singh, Executive Engineer of Agricultural Engineering Department B Chandran, District Agriculture Joint Director Ashok and senior government officials participated in this programme.