Horticulture blooms in Garden City
The area under horticulture cultivation, notably in Bangalore rural and urban districts, is reported to have risen by 5,000 acres during the last one year as per a review undertaken by the state's horticulture department (SHD) and the National Hor...
By TNN |
BANGALORE: The area under horticulture cultivation, notably in Bangalore rural and urban districts, is reported to have risen by 5,000 acres during the last one year as per a review undertaken by the state's horticulture department (SHD) and the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).
“The growth (in acreage) is positively surprising. It shows that there good scope for increasing horticulture cultivation in these districts,” said a senior official of the SHD.
This good tiding comes at a time when driven by rapid urbanisation of India's IT capital, vast tracts of farmlands are giving way to buildings of steel, aluminium and glass housing technology companies. Officials say that currently 75,000 hectares in Bangalore rural and urban districts are under horticulture cultivation producing a wide range of fruits, flowers and vegetables.
“The department is more than keen to play its role in promoting this form of agriculture. We are also focussing more on post-harvest management (PHM) to prevent farmers from going in for distress-sale. We expect the private sector to promote more projects like cold storage units, and refrigerated trucks for which NHM subsidy to the tune of 25% of the project cost is available,” sources added.
Officials said that rapid expansion of the retailing sector was helping to promote the growth of horticulture in Bangalore. It is believed that close to 30,000 tonne of horticulture produce passes daily through India's IT capital.
Meanwhile, according to Assocham, floriculture export is likely to touch the Rs 700-crore mark by the end of 2010 against the projected level of Rs 1,000 crore.
Bottlenecks like lack of proper infrastructure, good plant material and production technology are yet to be addressed. Cold storage facilities have not been created in airports to handle exports.
“The growth (in acreage) is positively surprising. It shows that there good scope for increasing horticulture cultivation in these districts,” said a senior official of the SHD.
This good tiding comes at a time when driven by rapid urbanisation of India's IT capital, vast tracts of farmlands are giving way to buildings of steel, aluminium and glass housing technology companies. Officials say that currently 75,000 hectares in Bangalore rural and urban districts are under horticulture cultivation producing a wide range of fruits, flowers and vegetables.
“The department is more than keen to play its role in promoting this form of agriculture. We are also focussing more on post-harvest management (PHM) to prevent farmers from going in for distress-sale. We expect the private sector to promote more projects like cold storage units, and refrigerated trucks for which NHM subsidy to the tune of 25% of the project cost is available,” sources added.
Officials said that rapid expansion of the retailing sector was helping to promote the growth of horticulture in Bangalore. It is believed that close to 30,000 tonne of horticulture produce passes daily through India's IT capital.
Meanwhile, according to Assocham, floriculture export is likely to touch the Rs 700-crore mark by the end of 2010 against the projected level of Rs 1,000 crore.
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Bottlenecks like lack of proper infrastructure, good plant material and production technology are yet to be addressed. Cold storage facilities have not been created in airports to handle exports.
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