Uttarakhand was awarded the Horticulture leadership Award 2014 at the seventh Agriculture leadership meet 2014 organised by the Agriculture Today group in New Delhi.
Uttarakhand was awarded for commendable contribution in horticulture sector towards increasing cultivators and production, marketing, encouraging basic facilities and facilitating the establishment of horticulture based food processing enterprises. The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien presented the award to the Uttarakhand Agriculture, Agriculture Education, Horticulture and Biotechnology minister Harak Singh Rawat on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Rawat informed the gathering about the various steps taken by the Uttarakhand government to provide facilities for industrial uses to farmers and various policy decisions aimed at facilitating the desired level of development in the agriculture sector. The State government has taken measures like 75 per cent higher subsidy for horticulture, replacement of poly blanket in polyhouse for five years, development of old orchards and formation of horticulture marketing board among other steps. The State has facilitated assistance for development of old orchards and drafted the integrated industrial encouragement policy 2008 and broad industrial and investment encouragement policy 2013 to facilitate the setting up of new industrial and processing enterprises in the remote and mountainous regions of the State. The minister further informed that a campaign has been started to facilitate plantation of 25 lakh fruit trees in Uttarakhand during 2014-15.
Speaking at the programme, the State Horticulture Department director BS Negi said that schemes of the Central and State governments are being operated in Uttarakhand to assist those in the horticulture sector. The Centrally funded horticulture mission is one such major initiative that has been under implementation in Uttarakhand since 2003-04. Keeping the geographical conditions of the State in consideration, traditional horticulture development has been stressed upon along with plantation, protected farming, micro irrigation system, development of old orchards, horticulture machinery and other aspects under the mission.