BHUBANESWAR: With horticulture emerging as a potential player in the Indian economy contributing 30 per cent of agricultural GDP, the State Government has prepared a comprehensive roadmap for doubling income of farmers under horticulture sector, which has moved out of rural areas to urban domain and from traditional agricultural enterprise to corporate sector.
As per the roadmap, priority would be given to proper implementation of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), development of micro irrigation, provision of quality seeds, establishment of tissue culture labs, upgradation of existing nurseries, promotion of nurseries under private sector and reduction of post-harvest losses.
Since the irrigation potential of the State is not encouraging, the Directorate of Horticulture has planned development of micro irrigation through PMKSY which aims at extending the coverage of irrigation to every farm and improving water use efficiency in a focused manner.
While the existing area under micro irrigation (drip and sprinkler) is about one lakh hectares (ha), special efforts will be made to train farmers and entrepreneurs for management of these units.
The farmers will be provided end-to-end solutions on source creation, distribution, management, field application and extension activities.
Though there was a target to cover 19,320 ha under the scheme during 2016-17 with financial outlay of `43.69 crore (Share of subsidy of the Centre and State being `13 crore and `8.67 crore respectively), the achievement was low due to less financial assistance.
A Horticulture Department official said in order to provide an impetus to implementation of PMKSY, the State Government has decided to provide assistance as per norms of the Centre and its share of `69.67 crore in next five years for coverage of 1,21,739 ha which will benefit 1,29,835 farmers.
‘’Besides, strategies have been made to supply quality seeds to farmers, establish large number of nurseries and attract investments in warehousing and cold chains to prevent post-harvest losses,’’ he said.
Even as Odisha produces 87.55 lakh tonnes of vegetables annually and is the seventh largest producer of vegetables, third largest producer of cashew, fifth largest producer of tomato, eighth largest producer of mango and twelfth largest producer of banana, it faces six to 18 per cent loss due to lack of cold stores.
The roadmap envisages that the reduction in post-harvest losses will lead to six per cent increase in income of farmers.
Provision of infrastructure like cold storage, value addition and food processing of horticulture produces will further enhance their income.
Horticulture in Odisha contributes to six per cent of total land used for the sector and five per cent of total production in the country.