Stressing the need to support farmers in the horticulture sector Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the challenge is to complement the sector with food processing, cold-chain agro logistics, agri-business, input related services, agricultural lending, insurance and value chain related services.
In case of Horticulture, cold-chain strengthens the total value chain system and enables socio-economic transformation of farmers. To double farmer’s income, cold-chain plays an important role in ensuring that farmers can recover value from produce to result in gainful economic productivity, Singh said during the inter-session meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in New Delhi.
Minister said that there are numerous success stories, for example, banana in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, guava & tomato in Chatisgarh, pomegranate and mango in Gujarat, pineapple in Nagaland, kiwi in Arunachal and orchids in Sikkim, off season vegetables in Uttarakhand, etc .
Establishment of crop based Centres of Excellence is being encouraged in each state to serve as a hub for supply of planting material and dissemination of technology to farmers. So far 27 CoEs have been established with Indo-Israel collaboration and more are in the pipeline with collaboration with other countries, he underlined.
Agriculture Minister stated that India is currently producing about 286 million tonnes of horticulture produce from an area of about 24.4 million hectare, accounting for about 13 percent of the total world production of fruits and leads the world in the production of mango, banana, papaya, sapota, pomegranate, acid lime and aonla.
Shri Singh informed the session that India is the second largest producer of vegetables after China and is a leader in production of vegetables like peas and okra. Besides, India occupies the second position in production of brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower and onion and third in potato and tomato in the world. Special thrust is being given for production of vegetables under protected cultivation under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH).
The Minister hoped that deliberations of the In-Session Consultative Committee would help bring a clearer insight of the lead role that horticulture must play in improving livelihood options, diversification of agriculture, and higher income to farmers.
Several MPs and Ministers including Parshottam Rupala, Sudarshan Bhagat, Chintaman Navsha Wanaga , Kamala Devi Patle, Shri Manshankar Ninama, Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel, Rodmal Nagar , Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre , Sumedhanand Saraswati and Dr. Tapas Mandal attended the meeting.