Agriculture officials are calling on the government. undo the farmer-officer 2.0 connection scheme

A number of agriculture officials urged Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to scrap the Uzhavar Aluvalar Thodarbu Thittam – 2.0 (Farmer-Officer Linkage Scheme) (UATT 2.0), a scheme that aims to unify all wings of the agriculture ministry at the field level.

Officers say the scheme would harm farmers’ interests as agriculture officials, who focus on staple crops, cannot provide advice on horticultural crops such as flowers, vegetables, fruits, spices, medicinal plants, aromatics and tea or coffee.

P. Sivakumar, president of the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Officers Association said that although both horticulture and agriculture officers study in the same colleges, out of the 86 subjects they study, only six are common to both streams. “It’s like asking doctors to treat animals instead of vets and saying they’re both doctors. If one pesticide works on a pest that’s in rice fields, using the same pesticide on roses on the same pest can burn the whole rose garden,” he explained.

S. Sivakumar, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Officers Welfare Association, said that during the restructuring of the department in 2007, several posts were transferred to the horticulture wing. Currently, the aim of UATT – 2.0 is to bring these posts back to the agriculture wing. It is better to create more posts if necessary, he added.

G. Murugan, president of the Tamil Nadu Assistant Horticulture Officers Association, said that if Mr. Vijay wanted to lead the state to become a 1.5 trillion economy and horticulture would be a big part of that. The coconut crop alone will account for 10% of this. Horticulture will help boost the state’s economy as it has more scope for value addition, he explained.

Meanwhile, KV Elankeeran, president of the Federation of Cauvery Delta Farmers Associations, opposed any move to reverse the scheme.

Published – 13 Jul 2026 22:09 IST