ONGOLE: The district horticulture officials in coordination with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is planning to enhance the extent of horticulture crop cultivation in up to 5,000 to 6,000 hectares in the next season across Prakasam district.
On the other hand, the agriculture department officials also enhanced their estimations from the average Kharif cultivation of 1,50,082 hectares to 1,54,739 hectares with an extended agriculture produce target of 1,66,596 tonnes for the next Kharif season in the district.
It is to be noted that chilli is the main crop cultivated in large areas across the district with an average cultivation extent of around 34,000 hectares. Other horticulture crops, including tomato, brinjal, okra, drumsticks, cabbage, cauliflower, Nannari roots, marigold, jasmine, crossandra and others, are cultivated in around 12,000 hectares.
All other perennial crops like mango, sapodilla, guava, dragon fruit, lemon, papaya, custard apple, cashew nut, pomegranate and sweet lime are cultivated in around 6,000 hectares across the district.
Now the horticulture authorities are mulling to plant various fruit crop saplings in around 7,000 hectares by the next season.
It is worth mentioning that a decade ago, the western Prakasam region topped the list for sweet lime orchards across the State. However, due to severe drought conditions and unavailability of groundwater forced the farmers to shift their energy towards crops requiring less water. Currently, sweet lime orchards are limited to around 3,000 hectares.
To bail out the farmers out of such obstacles, the horticulture officials have taken various measures to enhance the crop extent in the district. All the 38 mandals of the district were divided into five clusters—Markapur, Kanigiri, Bestavaripeta (B Peta), Darsi and Ongole— and 11 Horticulture Officers (HO) and five Horticulture Extension Officers (HEO) were allocated to oversee the progress. The targets set by horticulture officials include 1,550 acres for B Peta cluster, 1,200 acres for Darsi cluster, 1,650 acres for Markapur cluster, and 1,080 acres for Ongole cluster.
“Financial support is being provided to the horticulture farmers possessing less than 5 acres of cultivable land. Fruit saplings are also being provided from the government nurseries at a subsidised price,” said DWMA project director Arjuna Rao said. Stating that horticulture farmers are provided with shade nets, financial aid to digging water ponds, water pits, polyhouses, cold storages and processing machines, Horticulture department assistant director Y Gopichand told TNIE that around Rs 1 lakh will be provided to the farmers for a period of three years, besides providing subsidy-based finance.
38 mandals divided into five clusters
All the 38 mandals of the district were divided into five clusters—Markapur, Kanigiri, Bestavaripeta (B Peta), Darsi and Ongole—and 11 Horticulture Officers (HO) and five Horticulture Extension Officers (HEO) were appointed