KADAPA: With the State government encouraging people to take up horticulture under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), as many as 4,900 farmers in Annamayya district brought 10,242 acres under horticulture between 2019 and 2022.
For the first three years, the entire cost of cultivation of horticulture crops will be borne by the government and more and more small and marginal farmers are envisaging interest in taking up horticulture, so that they can get a steady income.
Annamayya District Collector PS Girisha has instructed horticulture and MGNREGS officials to create awareness among farmers about applying for horticulture under MGNREGS and assist them in cultivating horticulture crops under the scheme in a planned manner. Under MGNREGS, mango, sweet orange, dragon fruits, guava, taiwan guava, sapota, coconut, custard apple, pomegranate, tamarind, apple ber (Indian jujube) and flowers like rose and jasmine are being grown.
Officials were asked to take the interested farmers for a field visit and explain the advantage of the schemes. Job card holders, whose family own less than five acres of patta land, are eligible for the scheme. They should provide the copies of their pattadar pass book, Aadhaar along with their applications. Those who are not having irrigation facilities can opt for dry horticulture corps. Under the scheme, they can cultivate up to five acres.
Before taking up cultivation of horticulture crops under the scheme, they should get the soil in their fields tested. Based on the plants they are going to cultivate, they have to dig pits of 0.6 metre to 0.9 metre depth with a 3-10 metres gap between rows of pits. Payments for digging pits will be paid under the MGNREGS. That is, per an acre 40 to 444 pits will be there.
The needed saplings will be given by the horticulture department and even the transportation charges from nurseries to their fields will be borne by the government. Per acre, Rs 3,500 will be paid for organic and chemical fertilisers and vermicompost. Another Rs 680 will be provided per acre for providing for supporting the plants. For maintenance of the horticulture crops, Rs 76,800 will be paid for three years. Further, for watering of plants, another Rs 13,125 per acre will be paid per year. In all, Rs 1.5 lakh will be provided per acre.
According to officials, in 2019-20, 3,007 acres were brought under horticulture, in 2019, 4,281 acres and in 2021-22 another 3,053 acres were brought under horticulture. Benefits of cultivating horticulture can be had within six months of cultivating the crop and most importantly horticulture yields long-term gains.
M Jayakoti Reddy of Nagiripadu village of Chitvel mandal said the scheme has benefited him. A marginal farmer, he cultivated dragon fruits in his half an acre of land. A total of 900 saplings were planted and Rs 1.89 lakh was provided to him under the scheme. Now, it has been three years and he is confident of getting profits.
