PROMOTE HORTICULTURE FARMERS AND AGGREGATORS AS ENTREPRENEURS AND UTILIZE THE DEMONSTRATION POINTS AS TRAINING PLACES: CHIEF SECRETARY Bhubaneswar, 27th Aug Promote the horticultural farmers and aggregators as entrepreneurs not as mere beneficiaries of the schemes directed Chief Secretary Sri Gokul Chandra Pati while presiding over the Executive Committee meeting of Odisha horticulture Development Society held in secretariat conference hall yesterday wherein Principal Secretary agriculture Sri Rajesh Kumar Verma outlined the issues for discussion and the Director Horticulture Sri Sanjeeb Chadha presented the updates for review. Reviewing the activities of the department Sri Pati has advised to target for diversification of 30% of agricultural land for horticultural cultivation mostly from high and medium lands. The department has also been directed to workout a bankable scheme indicating interest subvention and credit guarantee provisions for financing of horticultural ventures under Joint Liability Group (JLG) approach so that small farmers can get bank finance. The Secretary cooperation Sri Bishnupada Sethi along with director Horticulture have been entrusted the reasonability of working out the scheme. The department has also been asked to institute awards for best farmers and farmer groups with cash incentives. . Focusing on training and motivation of farmers for horticultural ventures and agricultural farms Chief Secretary Sri Pati has advised the department to workout training modules in various operations of horticulture like green house management, plant care, orchard management integrated protein & nutrition management, cold chain management, agrientrepreneurship etc. Both the departments have been directed to list out 20 such skills and devise training modules through OUAT and KVK. It has been decided to train around 10,000 progressive farmers and youths in these skills. The departments have also been advised to utilize the demonstration centers as training places for farmers free of cost. The farmer in whose land demonstration is done should train other farmers as well. Such horticulturists should also be sent for exposure to more advanced units and centers of excellence. Available data shows last year 1,406 youths have been trained in 3 existing Horticultural Training Institutes of the State at Khordha, Kandhamal and Kalinga against the target of 1000. Chief Secretary has directed the department to fix the number of farmers to be covered in each of the crop planning and enlist the farmers who are really covered. The department has also been advised to prepare Standard Operating Procedure ( SOP) for each crop to deal with disasters like flood and cyclone and train the farmers accordingly so that their loss can be minimized and the affected crop can revived from further falling. The department has also been asked to register spawn producing units and enlist the mushroom cultivators. It has been decided in the meeting to promote establishment of cold storages with capacity of 100 matric ton or more through Govt subsidized schemes. Chief Secretary Sri Pati has directed to involve PACS, Farmer organizations, Farmer Self Help groups and individual entrepreneurs in this work. Under the scheme, it is estimated that establishment of a cold storage of 100 metric ton capacity requires investment of Rs 5 lakhs out which subsidy availability is 50%. The department has been directed to float advertisement inviting applications for establsi8ment such units. It has been decided in the meeting to promote of protected horticulture like green house cultivation , shade-net cultivation, poly cover cultivation etc. The proposal for insurance coverage of crops under protected horticulture was also discussed in the meeting and it was decided to initiate definite proposals in this direction. Departmental officers present in the meeting mentioned that around 12 lakh is required for erecting shade-net over one acre of land out of which 70% assistance is available under national horticulture mission and 30% is the farmers contribution which the farmers can avail as bank loans through JLG provisions. Chief Secretary wanted to know from farmers representatives present in the meeting about their opinion on shade-net cultivation. The representatives mentioned that the demonstration done in Deras center of excellence has been quite encouraging and farmers have started adopting the same. They also mentioned that shade-net cultivation of tomato has yielded around 4 laks from half an acre of land. The Annual Action Plan of Rs.110 cr has been approved in the meeting. The major components of the Action Paln includes upgradation of nursery, establishment of tissue culture units, production and distribution of vegetables, procurement of quality planting material, expansion of horticultural area, fruit cultivation, maintenance of fruit plantation, flori-culture, vegetable cultivation, mushroom cultivation, organic farming, adoption & certification, front line demonstration, human resource development, integrated post harvest management and establishment of marketing infrastructure etc. .-----------------------** U.K.Mohapatra** PRO to Chief Secretary.