Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the state has been exporting agricultural products worth Rs 19,000 crore yearly at present and in the next four years, there is a target of making it double. He was addressing a function at newly-constructed Integrated Pack House for Food and Vegetable Export at Karkhiyaon here on Monday evening from where, later on, he flagged off the first consignment of the delicious Banarasi Langra mango, a horticulture product of this region of Purvanchal (eastern UP) which has received a Geographical Identification (GI) tag recently, to Sharjah in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Besides, green chillies and other vegetables through three containers were also flagged off.
The CM said that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country has made a remarkable growth. “The PM had promised that by 2022 the income of the farmers would be doubled and in many areas, the same had more than the doubled today,” he said, adding that today the government is giving several benefits and subsidies to the farmers apart from technological and infrastructural support. He said that on every kilogram of agricultural product expert, a farmers gets subsidy of Rs 15. “Today, about 12 crore farmers are being benefitted under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi,” he said
UP Agricultural Minister Surya Pratap Shahi said that the pack house constructed with the cost of around Rs 15 crore would be very helpful to the farmers of Purvanchal (eastern UP) as they can now directly send their different products to different countries. He said that in the pack house fruits and vegetables have to go through many processes to prepare the product of international standard and keep their freshness, taste and other properties intact apart from taking special care to help the products do not contain pests and any kind of disease. The function was also attended by senior officers of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) including its Deputy General Manager (DGM) Dr CB Singh who said that apart from this consignment of Langra mangoes, about 30 to 35 MT of green chillies will be sent to Dubai and Doha via Mumbai through a 40 feet reefer (refrigerated) container by a water vessel soon and apart from this, preparations are on to send other products including okra (Bhindi).
The function was also attended by UP Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dinesh Pratap Singh and Ravindra Jiswal, MP from Machallishahr BP Saroj, MLA from Pindra Dr Awadhesh Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Agricultural) Devesh Chaturvedi and senior local administrative and police officers.