The Chhattisgarh Government will set up a State-level sapling plantation training centre at Naya Raipur which is said to be instrumental in promoting horticulture crops in Chhattisgarh, officials claimed on Saturday.
As per information, for establishing this training centre about 70 acres of land has already been allocated in the State capital Naya Raipur and Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) has also sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the project. The drawing-design of the proposed centre is also ready, the official said.
“At this center farmers will be provided training of latest agro-techniques being used in horticulture farming. Further as per the needs of the farmer they will be also supplied with hybrid saplings,” Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said.
He further informed that the agriculture department has prepared a five-year roadmap for promoting horticulture in Chhattisgarh. The roadmap starting from the fiscal 2017-18 will end in 2021-22.
According to the minister, Chhattisgarh has a good potential of horticulture crops and currently these crops are being cultivated over 7.41 lakh hectares with total crop yield of 85.95 lakh metric tons.
“Since 2004-05 the acreage of horticulture crops has grown about four times,” Minister Agrawal claimed.
Detailing about the roadmap, he informed that in next five years the government has decided to expand the acreage of horticulture crops by 4.53 lakh hectare.
For every component of horticulture separate working plan has been prepared, he said while adding that we have decided to develop new crop farms, expanding the area of vegetables, spices crops and flower cultivation in Chhattisgarh.
Referring to the micro irrigation mission of the Government of India he said so far in Chhattisgarh 75,000 hectares farms have already been covered under this mission.
“Our target is to cover 2.34 lakh hectares of farms under micro irrigation in our state in next 5 years by investing Rs 1405.53 crore,” the agriculture minister said.