States ready with annual plan for horticulture development

Acting on the directives of the Centre, states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana are ready with their annual plans to boost horticulture production.

Besides these states, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa have also drawn the annual action plan for 2012-13 horticulture year, sources in the Agriculture Ministry said.
The Centre has asked the states to ensure that Annual Action Plans for the horticulture year are cleared by April 15, they added.

The National Horticulture Mission has also planned to organise commodity seminars on mango, apple, potato, onion, grapes, banana and vegetable production, the sources said.
Special programmes would be drawn to boost export promotion and processing of horticulture crops, the sources said, adding that similar efforts would be made for promoting micro-irrigation and fertigation.

A grand mango show is planned at Berlin in Germany during the year besides hosting regional fruit festivals, they said. India is the world's second largest horticulture producer after China.

Spread over 20.8 million hectare, annual production of horticultural crops in the country is 240 million tonnes. Out of this, the share of fruits is 72 million tonnes and that of vegetables is 134 million tonnes. Engaging about two crore farmers, horticulture contributes 30-35 per cent to the agriculture GDP of the country.