Micro Nutrient Spray

What is the Micro Nutrient Spray scheme?

Micro Nutrient Spray is an input subsidy scheme of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu. The department supplies farmers with a micronutrient mixture for foliar spraying at a 50 per cent subsidy, published in departmental material at Rs 70 per hectare, with a stated focus on ensuring the benefit reaches Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women farmers.

The rate deserves an honest note before anything else. Rs 70 per hectare appears in Tamil Nadu Agriculture Department policy material, and the scheme is described as a 50 per cent subsidy. Departmental input rates are revised in the annual policy note and vary with the mixture supplied and the crop, and the department separately provides bio-fertiliser and micronutrient inputs worth Rs 1,200 per hectare under a different head to promote their use in crop cultivation. Confirm the current rate and the current head at the Agricultural Extension Centre in your block rather than relying on a published figure from an earlier year.

Why does a crop need a micronutrient spray?

The agronomy here is worth understanding, because farmers who see no visible response often conclude micronutrients are a waste of money, and that conclusion is usually wrong.

Crops need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in large quantities, and Indian farmers apply them heavily. They also need zinc, boron, iron, manganese, copper and molybdenum in very small quantities; grams per hectare rather than kilograms. But small does not mean optional. A crop short of zinc cannot use the nitrogen it has been given. The limiting nutrient sets the ceiling, and adding more of what is already adequate does nothing.

Tamil Nadu soils are widely zinc-deficient, particularly in paddy tracts, and boron deficiency is common in pulses, groundnut, cotton and vegetables. The symptoms are unspectacular and easy to misread, shortened internodes and pale bands in paddy for zinc, hollow stems and poor pod or boll setting for boron, interveinal yellowing on young leaves for iron. Farmers routinely mistake these for water stress or disease and respond with more urea, which makes the imbalance worse.

Foliar spraying is used rather than soil application for a practical reason. Micronutrients applied to the soil are often locked up by high pH or high organic matter before the roots can take them, especially in calcareous soils. Sprayed on the leaf, a small quantity is absorbed directly, works within days, and costs a fraction of the soil-applied equivalent. Timing matters: micronutrient sprays are generally applied at the vegetative to early reproductive stage, before flowering or at the start of it, which is when the crop is setting its yield potential.

Who is eligible, and who cannot apply?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer cultivating land in Tamil Nadu.
• You can establish the extent under cultivation, since the subsidy is calculated per hectare.
• You are cultivating a crop in the current season for which the mixture is being supplied.
• You are within the block's allotment for the season.
• You belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, or are a woman farmer, in which case the scheme's earmarked share applies to you and you should say so at the counter.

You cannot apply if:

• You cannot establish cultivation; no patta, no chitta or adangal extract, and no Village Administrative Officer certificate of cultivation. A person with no land under crop is not eligible for a per-hectare crop input subsidy.
• You are not cultivating in Tamil Nadu.
• The block allotment for the season is exhausted, in which case the position is a deferral rather than a rejection and you should ask to be recorded for the next allotment.
• You are seeking reimbursement for a mixture bought from a private dealer. The scheme supplies the input at a subsidised rate; it does not refund private purchases.

What documents are required?

Carry originals with one self-attested photocopy set.

How to apply for micronutrient spray subsidy

1. Get a Soil Health Card if you do not have one. Submit a soil sample at the soil testing laboratory through the Agricultural Extension Centre. The card reports zinc, boron, iron, manganese and copper along with pH and organic carbon, and it tells you and the officer which micronutrient your field is actually short of. This is not a formal precondition, but it is the difference between a targeted spray and a guess.
2. Visit the Agricultural Extension Centre or the office of the Assistant Director of Agriculture in your block at the start of the season. Supply is against an annual allotment and late applicants find it exhausted.
3. Tell the Agricultural Officer the crop, the extent in hectares or acres, the sowing date and any deficiency symptoms you have seen, and show the Soil Health Card if you have one.
4. Complete the application or the indent register entry with your name, village, survey number, extent and crop.
5. Produce the documents — Aadhaar, chitta or adangal, residence proof, bank passbook, and the community certificate if you are claiming under the SC or ST earmarked share.
6. Pay the farmer's share at the counter and collect the micronutrient mixture against a receipt showing the quantity issued, the subsidy applied and the amount paid. Keep the receipt.
7. Ask for the spray schedule. The officer should tell you the dilution rate, the volume of spray solution per hectare, the crop stage at which to apply, and whether a second spray is advised.
8. Spray correctly: in the early morning or late evening, never in the midday heat, with the spray covering both leaf surfaces, and not immediately before expected rain.

How do you check on an application or an allotment?

There is no online citizen tracker for this input subsidy. The route is:

1. Keep the receipt or indent entry reference from the extension centre.
2. Ask the Agricultural Officer or Assistant Director of Agriculture in the block whether the season's allotment has been received and how much remains.
3. Where the allotment is exhausted, ask to be recorded for the next allotment and get that confirmed.
4. Escalate to the Joint Director of Agriculture at the district level.
5. Use the Agri Online e-Sevai section of TNAgrisNet at tnagrisnet.tn.gov.in for departmental services and records.

Why do farmers not get the benefit, and how is that fixed?

• Applying too late in the season, after the block's allotment is exhausted. Approach the extension centre at the start of the season.
• No proof of cultivation. Obtain the chitta and adangal extract, or a VAO certificate of cultivation for leased land.
• Extent not established, so the per-hectare subsidy cannot be computed.
• SC or ST earmarked share not claimed because the community certificate was not produced. Carry it and say so at the counter.
• Wrong mixture for the field. A general micronutrient mixture on a field short of only boron wastes most of the application. Get the Soil Health Card first.
• Sprayed at the wrong stage or in the wrong conditions; midday heat, or immediately before rain, so no response is seen and the farmer concludes it does not work.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, where the subsidy is released as a transfer.

Where can a farmer raise a grievance?

• The Agricultural Officer or Assistant Director of Agriculture in your block, at the Agricultural Extension Centre.
• The Joint Director of Agriculture at the district level.
• The Director of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Kamarajar Salai, Triplicane, Chennai 600 005, on 044-28524894.
• The District Collector's weekly grievance day, and the Uzhavar Sandhai and farmers' grievance meetings held at the district level.

Subsidised inputs are issued against a receipt at a government counter. No agent or dealer commission is payable, and a farmer asked for money beyond the counter rate should report it to the Joint Director.

What related input support should a farmer check?

The sequence that actually saves money is: test the soil, read the card, correct the specific deficiency, then buy the rest of the fertiliser. A micronutrient spray applied because the Soil Health Card showed a zinc or boron deficiency is among the cheapest yield gains available to a Tamil Nadu farmer. The same spray applied blind, on a field that is not deficient, buys nothing.