Collector Ankit Anand has directed the officials of Horticulture Department to take appropriate steps for increasing the production of flowers and vegetables in the rural pockets of the district. In a meeting convened here, Anand directed to produce the vegetables in 600 to 700 hectares of land and flowers in another 500 to 600 hectares of area.
He also asked the officials to formulate proper working strategy and involve the farmers for their benefit them. During the meeting, Anand asked the officials of Woman and Child Development department to keep a check on the malnutrition rate in the children.
Anand made it mandatory not to compromise with the quality of the food given in the mid-day meal. The officials of Rural Engineering Services (RES) department were asked to prepare the estimate for the construction of roads and culverts in Binta area.
During the last five years, the Narayanpur farmers in Bastar have expanded their coverage to horticulture based crops in about 6,000 hectares of land in 2011-12 against a mere 3,000 hectares in 2007-08 while continuing to grow paddy and a variety of pulses, officials stated.
The result of the rise in the output of horticulture based crops had been that the haat bazaars of Narayanpur have now a wide variety of vegetables available for sale which had brought perceptible change in the economic well being of many farmers, official sources said.The other areas farmers had been developing had been floriculture and fruits.
The State Horticulture Department had been campaigning hard in the region for many years to help farmers expand their basket of crops grown on their land which is bearing fruit now, sources added.