BHUBANESWAR : Deputy chief minister and Agriculture minister KV Singh Deo met the chairman of Maharashtra-based Jackfruit King Agro Producer Company Mithilesh Desai at Lok Seva Bhawan on Thursday and discussed about jackfruit cultivation on commercial scale in Odisha.
Singh Deo said the discussions were on developing jackfruit cluster on public private partnership (PPP) mode with processing facilities at Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput and six other districts. It was decided to spare agricultural and horticultural farms of the government to the company for area expansion of jackfruit in the state if required.
While the Odisha Jackfruit Mission covered other districts such as Angul, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada and Sundargarh, it was also decided to include Padmapur sub-division of Bargarh district and Patnagarh sub-division of Balangir district under the mission because of its agro-biodiversity.
The deputy chief minister said that exposure visits will be arranged for farmers and FPOs to Ratnagiri areas of Maharastra for better understanding of the business ecosystem of jackfruit. Focus will be on end to end integration. “The initiative aims to boost farmers income by leveraging jackfruit as a high-value export commodity and creating value-added products,” Singh Deo added.
The directorate of Horticulture is focusing on establishing a jackfruit value chain, from production to marketing. Under the mission, three Techno-Incubation Centres (TICs) were set up in Koraput, Kandhamal and Keonjhar to help farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and women’s self-help groups (SHGs) with processing and value addition. The state produces over 3.15 million tonne jackfruit per annum.
Principal secretary of Agriculture Arabinda Padhee, director of Horticulture Kalunge Gorakh Waman and other senior officials of the department were present during the discussion.
