To boost Punjab’s horticulture sector, the Central Government has sanctioned Rs 75 crore for the State under the National Horticulture Mission.
“Approving an action plan of the State Horticulture Department under National Horticulture Mission (NHM), the Union Agriculture Ministry has sanctioned Rs 75 crore for Punjab,” an official spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The funds, thus provided, would be used for setting up and maintaining orchards, floriculture and bee-keeping activities besides installation of community water tanks, green-houses, cold stores and pack-houses, he said.
Further, the spokesperson maintained that the funds would also help the State to encourage farmers to shift area under cultivation from water-guzzling paddy crop to flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Concerted efforts are afoot to strengthen the infrastructure for preservation of fruits and vegetables, he said.
Two Centres of Excellence have already been approved — one for citrus at Khanaura in Hoshiarpur district at a cost of Rs 10.30 crore and another for vegetables at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district at a cost of Rs 9.73 crore.
Both these centres are being developed by the Punjab Mandi Board in sync with the Indo-Israel agreement, he stated.
In the current financial year, plastic crates are also being provided to the cultivators at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) to enhance the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
Besides, National Vegetable Initiative (NVI) — a subsidiary scheme of RKVY — has also been implemented in five districts of the State including ludhiana, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib, under which the Centre has approved Rs 6 crore in the current fiscal.
A proposal for the expansion of litchi and Guava estates is also on the anvil while two proposals have been sent under the RKVY for establishing two sub-centres of the Citrus estates at Maur in Bathinda and Kotkapura in Faridkot.
As much as 2,060 hectares is currently under the commercial floriculture, of which 1300 hectares area is being utilized to produce 10,054 tonne of fresh and cut flowers.
About 1.92 lakh hectare land in the state is under vegetable cultivation with annual production of 37.34 tonne whereas 71,000 hectares of land is under fruit cultivation with a production of 14.20 lakh tonnes.