Vijayapura: The nursery of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited (KBJNL) of Almatti dam is all set to distribute over 10 lakh saplings of 175 different varieties to farmers for increasing forest cover of the District.
Since the nursery supplies best quality saplings at highly subsidised rates, the demand for the nursery has extensively increased among the farmers. The demand is so high that the farmers wait in queue from early morning itself to purchase the saplings in large quantities. Since majority of the farmers prefer to buy saplings of different fruits, the demand for these saplings is very high. The farmers said that the saplings of the same fruits are very costly in private nurseries, therefore they prefer to buy from KBJNL nursery as the prices are very affordable for the farmers.
Besides saplings of various fruits, the nursery also prepared saplings of ornamental plants, flowery plants, medicinal plants and commercially valued plants such as Teak etc.
The Department buys seeds or smaller saplings from various nurseries of the country and are later developed at the nursery located near Almatti dam site. Though the Department normally started to distribute the plants from June 1 itself, but this year, because of the MLC election, the Election Commission has imposed a model code of conduct. Therefore, the Department has decided to start distributing the sapling from June 20.
This year, the Department has decided to implement a token system where the saplings would be given only for 40 farmers each a day from three nurseries. The distribution of the token will also start from June 20. The farmers will have to arrive on the given date to collect the saplings.
The sapling to be given only to those who have collected the token. The Department has fixed the price between Re. 1 and Rs. 10 for each sapling based on the size and variety. Each farmer will be given not more than 500 saplings. In order to collect the saplings, the farmers will have to bring the title deeds of their farm land, Aadhaar card and GPS reading.
The saplings are available at Almatti Dam Nursery, Almatti Dam MDF Nursery, Almatti Dam ALBC Nursery, Basavasagar Nursery in Raichur District and Kundaragi Village Nursery in Bilagi Taluk of Baglakote District. For more details, the farmers can contact, 9916604399, 8105338247, the officials said.
