Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, OP Dhankar on Sunday called upon the farmers of the state to increase their agricultural and horticultural production besides doing marketing and branding of their products.
The farmers can get the right price of their produce only by mastering marketing and branding of their products, Dhankar said while addressing a gathering on the concluding day of 28th Mango Mela held at Yadavindra Gardens, Pinjore at Panchkula near here.
The Minister said that if India's farmers make serious efforts in the field of marketing and branding of their products, India can outperform countries such as Israel in agriculture on the global platform. At the same time, he directed the officers of the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments to increase the duration of Mango Mela from two days to three days from the coming year.
He said that the literature related to fruits and their products should also be provided in the Mela so that people coming to the fair can get information about varieties of mangoes, timings of their availability and method of preparation of products.
In this Mela, Puran Chand Bhatia, a resident of Chhachroli of district Yamunanagar secured first place in the ranking of best mango grower district in the state.
Similarly, in this ranking, Anju Goel, a resident of village Billa, district Panchkula won second prize and Gian Chauhan, a resident of Barara, district Ambala got the third prize.
In this ranking, the first, second and third prizes winners are awarded with cash prize of Rs 51,000, Rs 21,000 and Rs 11,000 alongwith shield and certificate.
Similarly, in the participating districts of Haryana, Ambala bagged the maximum number of 12 awards whereas Yamunanagar remained second with 10 awards
Director General, Horticulture Department, Arjun Singh Saini said that in this two-day Mango Mela, the mango producers of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh had registered 3,777 entries of more than 300 varieties of mangoes.