The Chhattisgarh Government will be designing a ‘Horticulture Produce Route’ on the lines of ‘Milk Route’ to get produce of farmers to various markets across the State, officials informed.
As per the plan, the villages would be selected as ‘cluster’ for forming the ‘Horticulture Produce Route’.
The Government has already started implementing a Rs 815.59 crore five-year plan for promotion of horticulture products in the State.
The Chhattisgarh Government has prepared a five-year master plan to provide a fillip to the cultivation of horticulture based crops in the State.
The master plan is for the period 2017-18 to 2021-22, officials informed.
Horticulture is a sunrise sector in the State. The Horticulture crops cover an acreage of 7.41 lakh hectares and production is about 85.95 lakh metric tonnes, officials informed.
The acreage under horticulture crops had increased several times since 2004-05.
According to the master plan, the target is to increase acreage of horticulture crops by about 4.52 lakh hectares. The increase in acreage will cover fruits, vegetables, masala (spices) crops and flowers.
Under the Central Government’s Micro-Irrigation Mission Project about 75,000 hectares land had been brought under micro-irrigation in Chhattisgarh. The proposal is to bring in additional 2.34 lakh additional land under the micro-irrigation during the next five years.
An additional investment of Rs 1,405 crore is likely to be incurred on the project. Farmers will be trained in the processing of horticulture crops.
Additional training centers in production of horticulture crops will be established under the Private Partnership Plan (PPP), officials informed.
Agriculture expert teams also will visit all the villages in the State and guide the farmers. About 30,000 farmers and 185 employees will be trained in the coming years and 100 farmers will be sent overseas on a study tour.
The Horticulture Department officials said that under the Post-Harvest Management, a network of cold storages and pack houses will be established to prevent the damage of perishable commodities like fruits, vegetables and flowers in the entire State.
About Rs 90.81 crore is likely to be invested in the project. Green Houses, shed net houses, mulching will be established at a cost of Rs 321 crore.
To encourage mechanisation of Horticulture, 20 Horse Power tractors, rotavator, power spryer, light trap instruments will be supplied to the farmers at a cost of Rs 16.74 crore. Honey bee industry will be doubled in due course of time. There is a proposal to invest Rs 6.40 crore in the rearing of honey bees .
Prime Minister Crops’ Insurance Scheme will help farmers to cover up the losses. About 90 nurseries out of 122 nurseries will be upgraded. The vegetables are grown on 4.14 lakh hectares of land.
Ten minor and three major Plug Type Vegetable Seedling Units are operating at present. An additional 20 minor and 10 major units will be established soon. Ten lakh saplings will be planted every year.
There are immense possibilities in growing mangoes, guavas, lemon, Amla, Pomegranate, berries, custard apple, litchi, naspati, peach, plumes and the acreage will be increased by 1.37 lakh hectares every year.
A Mother Tree Resource Center will be developed at Naya Raipur for the benefit of farmers. A State-level Training Center will be established to introduce farmers to high-grade plants.
Chief Minister Raman Singh said that a cold storage chain would be created in Chhattisgarh after identifying all the vegetable growing pockets of the State.
He was speaking at the State loan Symposium of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) early this year.
Singh called upon the district collectors to prepare a blue print for the far-flung regions of State in the next 24 months so that the farmers who grow vegetables need not protest on the streets for better facilities and remuneration.
He laid stress on better marketing of the farmers products vegetables and fruits so that they earn substantial profits. Chief Minister unveiled ‘State Focus Paper’ of the NABARD for the year 2017-2018.
The Chief Minister said that the State had been making several efforts to increase the income of farmers .
Solar pumps are being installed in remote areas where authorities are unable to provide electricity due to difficult terrain and other geographical reasons, he said
Fifty-one thousand solar irrigation pumps will be distributed to the farmers under the Solar Sujla Yojana, Singh said.
The ‘Backyard’ farm project of the Bank is very successful and it should be extended to all parts of the State, he said.
Singh called upon the bank officials to allot loans to small and medium farmers so that they can increase their income.
The Chhattisgarh Government has sent a proposal to the Central Government for setting up an ‘Organic Farming Research Centre’ in the State.
Presently, Chhattisgarh State Regional Organic Farming Research Centre is working under Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), but as the agro-climatic condition of the State is different, Chhattisgarh has demanded from Central Government, Chhattisgarh’s own Research Centre, Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal informed.
This apart, during the ongoing Rabi season, farmers have collected nearly 10.96 lakh packets of organic fertilizers for various crops, he said.
Chhattisgarh State Agriculture and Seed Development Corporation
supplies organic fertilizers as per the demand of farmers, Agrawal said. He said that organic farming has become need of the hour. The farmers are also becoming more and more aware about the benefits of this method of cultivation.
Under the leadership of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the State Government has launched Organic Farming Mission to promote organic farming in Chhattisgarh, he said.
This Mission is being conducted in all 27 districts of the State, under which nearly 3,854 hectares of land has been earmarked for organic farming. State-level organic farming cell and district level organic farming cells have been set up for success of the mission.
Farmers have been provided organic seeds to develop seven Government agricultural cells as model organic cells.
On August 31 last year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had directed officials to draw an action plan for operating a State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’ in the State. Chairing a meeting of the State Industry Department at the office at his residence in Raipur, the Chief Minister said that as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the State would run the ‘Food Processing Mission’ while using its own resources.
He said that the State Government has made a provision of Rs 12 crore for launching the State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’.
Singh said that the launching of Mission would help farmers get better prices for their farm produce and also open new job avenues for youth in the Food Processing sector. Officials attending the meeting said that Food Processing Sector in Chhattisgarh is being seen as a ‘focus sector’ to ensure industrial diversity.
The Chhattisgarh Government will also now promote use of solar photo voltaic power plants in cold storages in a bid to conserve huge quantum of energy consumed by such facilities in the State, officials stated.
The project is to be implemented by Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA), officials stated.
The solar power plant having 50 Kw minimum capacity would be installed in a cold storage in the State meant for storing fruits, vegetables and flowers. The cold storage would also be connected to a ‘remote monitoring’ mechanism and the data would be viewable in a desktop or even smart phones.
In April last year, the Chhattisgarh Government had announced that an Agro Mall will be developed at Raipur Agriculture Produce Market .
Chhattisgarh is among those 13 states in the country which had notified the rules to implement the provisions of Agricultural Produce Marketing Regulation (APMR) Act to facilitate contract farming in the State, officials stated.
The other States which had notified the rules are —Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana) have notified the rules to implement the provision, officials stated.