The State-level steering committee of the Horticulture Mission for North-East Himalayan States has given its approval to an action plan amounting to Rs46 crore for 2014-15. This decision was taken in the SlSC meet chaired by chief secretary N Ravishankar in the Secretariat on Monday.
In addition to approval for the action plan, the committee has also decided to take up recommendation of action plan worth Rs61.33 crore for the year 2015-16 in the month of April. The chief secretary said that people’s income can be increased through horticulture. The yield of apples, malta, ginger and other produce can be promoted cluster-wise.
Along with this, the arrangements can also be made for market linkage of such produce. The director of Horticulture Mission, BS Negi said that in the year 2014-15, farming of 3,923 hectares of horticulture crops was carried out in the State. This included 1,277 hectare fruits, 1,453 hectare vegetables, 944 hectare spices, 95 hectare aromatic plants and 204 hectare of flowers.
Old enterprises based on flower plantations were revived on 510 hectares. Farmers were also benefitted with facilitation of polyhouse, shed-net, anti-hale net and plastic mulching. Present in the meeting were principal secretary, Planning, N Ramaswamy, SIIDCUl managing director Rajesh Kumar and other officers were also present in the meeting.
