Taking a holistic farm-to-market approach to the promotion of horticulture and accretion in the income of farmers, the Haryana Government has decided to launch ‘Crop Cluster Development Programme on Farm and Marketing Support to Horticulture Farmers’ in 2016-17.
The `510.35-crore project, evolved at the behest of the Chief Minister, Manohar lal, would be executed in three years during which infrastructure-related facilities would be created in phases with focus on ‘Baagwani Villages’ under the Horticulture Cluster Programme.
Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, OP Dhankar on Sunday said that the project would be undertaken as part of the Swarna Jayanti celebrations in the State.
Taking village as the wheel of activity, and farmers as its spokes, the project aims at collectivising farmers, especially small producers, at various levels across the state, fostering technology penetration, improving productivity, enabling improved access to inputs and services, and increasing farmer incomes, thereby strengthening their sustainable agriculture-based livelihood, said he.
It also aims at ensuring suitable market availability, both domestic and
international.
Issues such as aggregation of produce, market linkages, grading, packing and standards, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, pesticide residues, microbiological contamination and market access would be addressed through the project. It would also help in finding a way out of such problems as direct approach to targeted beneficiaries, improvement in quality, grades and standards, improvement in post-harvest management and increase in bargaining power of farmers, Dhankar said.
He said that the objectives sought to be achieved include development of farmer socio-economic security model in the villages and farm sustainability, achievement of nutritional security and delivery of safe, quality food to the consumers and organised marketing through transparent institutional delivery mechanism.
These would be realised through the creation of farmers’ groups, horticulture clusters and villages, increase in area and production under horticulture, introduction and penetration of technologies in horticulture clusters, development of agri-business PHM Centres and market linkages, and policy initiates at cluster levels, he added.
Principal Secretary, Agriculture Department, Abhilaksh likhi, said that under the initiatives, 20 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) had been formed in the state, comprising 687 Farmers’ Initiative Groups (FIGs).
As many as 12,593 farmers have been associated with these organisations.
Besides, two FPOs have been formed exclusively for mushroom growers and beekeepers with 16 and 32 FIGs comprising 298 mushroom growers and 549 beekeepers, respectively. Also, 140 clusters comprising 340 baagwani villages have also been identified in the state, said he.