GoI okays state horticulture action plan of Rs 75 crore under NHM

By Punjabnewswire4u

CHANDIGARH, JULY 17

          Approving an action plan of the State Horticulture department under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), the Union Agriculture Ministry, GoI has sanctioned Rs. 75 crore for Punjab in current fiscal to give further impetus to the state government’s ambitious ‘Agriculture Diversification’ program.

          Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that under this plan funds would be provided for setting up and maintenance of orchards, floriculture, Bee-keeping besides installation of community water tanks, Green House, Cold Stores and packs houses. The approval of the action plan was seen a major shot in arm of the state government which was making persistent efforts for motivating the farmers to shift their major cultivable area under paddy to other less water intensive alternate crops like maize, soyabean, pulses, flowers, fruits and vegetables besides by providing the required machinery/ farm equipment to the cultivators. Moreover, these efforts would further propel a revolution in horticulture and floriculture across the state.   

Concerted efforts were afoot to strengthen the infra structure for the preservation of the fruits and vegetables which includes establishing two Centres of Excellence in the state including Centre of Excellence for Citrus at Khanaura in Hoshiarpur district at a cost of Rs 10.30 crore and Centre of Excellence for Vegetables at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district at a cost of Rs 9.73 crore. Both these centres were being developed by the Punjab Mandi Board in sync with the Indo-Israel agreement. In the current financial year plastic crates were being provided to the cultivators at a cost of Rs 150 lakh under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) to enhance the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Besides National Vegetable Initiative (NVI), a subsidiary scheme of RKVY, has also been implemented in the five districts of the state viz. Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib, under which the Centre has approved Rs six crore in the current fiscal.

Likewise to give big boost to the horticulture in the state by undertaking extensive research and extension services, a concrete proposal for the expansion of Litchi and Guava estates was on anvil. Two proposals have been sent under the RKVY for establishing two sub centers of the Citrus estates at Maur (Bathinda) and Kotkapura (Faridkot). These centers would be provided all the facilities extended to the Citrus estates.

To encourage the production of the fruits, the Horticulture department has supplied 12 lakh saplings to the farmers from the registered nurseries. Similarly nearly 13000 people were being imparted training at the Fruit Processing Laboratories of the department across the state. In a bid to ensure value addition of the Fruits and vegetables and better remunerative returns to the growers, as many as 82810 kilograms of Fruits and vegetables had been processed in Fruit Processing Laboratories.

Pertinently 2060 hectares land was currently under the commercial floriculture out of which 1300 hectares area in the state, was being utilized to produce 10054 Metric ton of fresh and cut flowers. Likewise 760 hectare land was being utilized to produce 65 metric ton of flower seed. In the same manner currently 1.92 lakh hectare land in the state was under vegetable cultivation with total production of 37.34 metric ton whereas 0.71 lakh hectare land was under Fruit cultivation with production of 14.20 lakh metric ton.

As a part of state Agriculture department’s endeavor to ensure production of disease resistant and high yielding varieties of potato and vegetables seeds to the farmers, 28823 quintal seeds have been produced at its farms. As many as 41500 units of scientifically tested Mushroom seeds have been processed in the Departmental Mushroom Laboratories at Patiala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Sangrur. Further to encourage Sericulture in the state, 31109 kilos of Cocoon have been produced in foothill districts of Roopnagar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.