A Centre of Excellence for Flowers is being set up with the assistance of Netherlands in district Jhajjar of Haryana to encourage the farmers to take up floriculture.
Haryana Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister, OP Dhankar announced this while addressing the concluding session of Haryana International Trade Expo organised jointly by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) in Faridabad.
The Minister said that the State Government is taking effective steps to double the income of farmers. They are being motivated by promoting horticulture and floriculture, said he.
Dhankar said that the State Government had set a target to increase the area under cultivation of vegetables, fruits and flowers from the existing 12 lakh acres to 22 lakh acres. As many as 340 villages are being developed as horticultural villages at a cost of Rs 517 crore and Centres of Excellence are being opened in every district to encourage the farmers, said he.
The farmers can more than double their income by cultivating vegetables, fruits and flowers to meet the requirements of four crore people living in the National Capital Region, which has turnover of `100 crore per day. Apart from this, agriculture offers abundant possibilities associated with industrial sector, which could be utilised by the farmers to sell their products abroad, he added.