After tourism, industries are the most important sector in the state which could increase the state’s GDP” said Alok Kumar Jain, Chief secretary while presided over a meeting of the steering committee of the Horticulture Mission for North east and Himalayan States (HMNEH) at the secretariat on Friday.
The steering committee approved of Rs 30 crore for 2012-13. He also requested the Horticulture Commissioner, Government of India to have a roadmap prepared for Uttarakhand by experts.
During meeting it was revealed that there has been an expansion of crops on 57,998 hectares - of these 30,224 hectares have been brought under fruits, 17845 hectares under vegetables, 5546 hectares under spices and 1211 hectares under flowers. Polyhouses /green Houses have been set up in 2,08,520 square metres. Since 2003 (under the Mini Mission), 97 nurseries have been set up.
Principal Secretary (Hortculture) Om Prakash said that quality planting material must be bought from research institutions and agricultural universities of central government. He said a centre of excellence should be set up to train farmers and construct green houses. Dr Gorakh Singh,Horticulture Commissioner gave the assurance that if the first instalment for the annual work plan for 2013-14 was spent timely, then an additional amount of Rs.10 Crore would be given. Uttarakhand Horticulture and Forestry University (Bharsar) made a proposal that Rs 498.68 lakh be allotted for developing a centre for excellence. The committee approved the proposal in principle.
