Chennai: Since the installation of the first seed vending machine in the state in 2014 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University’s (TNAU) botanical garden in Coimbatore, ten more machines installed across Tamil Nadu have sold over three lakh packets to farmers and gardening connoisseurs.
“There are flower and vegetable seeds sold for Rs 10. These machines can hold about 900 packets at a time, which are kept refrigerated. Depending on the price of the seeds, quantity worth Rs 10 is kept in the machine,” said P Selvaraj, Special Officer (Seeds), Horticulture College and Research Institute, TNAU.
He added that over last year, the machines placed across last two years in 11 cities, including Coimbatore, Pudukottai, Chennai, Thirunelveli, Periyakulam, Virudhachalam, dispensed over three lakh packets of seeds. “These seeds were most popular among farmers, and people who are into gardening in urban spaces, especially those with balcony and terrace gardens,” Selvaraj continued.
According to him, the University staff plan to install these machines in more cities but are awaiting funds from the government to decide on the scaling up of this facility, which provides a facility to modern day gardeners by selling them at least 30 different varieties of seeds.
K Ganesh, who was surprised to see such a machine at Coimbatore which dispensed seeds, said he loved the concept and bought some seeds for his garden. “These are native varieties of seeds, not hybrid. And the machine has seeds of everything from chilies to pumpkins,” he said.
