Clusters formed to boost vegetable production

The aim of these clusters is to increase vegetable production and also market the produce through farmers’ groups. A sum of Rs 12 crore has been earmarked for this purpose,government officials said.

A spokesperson of the haryana Horticulture Department said that under this scheme,assistance will be given to farmers to form groups and grow both hybrid and open-pollinated crops besides providing them with vegetable storage solutions.

Apart from Gurgaon,the other districts where the scheme will be implemented are Mewat,Rewari,Palwal,Faridabad,Jhajjar,Sonepat,Panipat,Rohtak,Karnal and Kurukshetra.

Officials added that for supply of fresh vegetables in urban areas,the department is introducing motorised and non-motorised vegetable carts equipped with cooling technology to increase the shelf-life of vegetables.

These carts will be supplied to local vendors and farmers’ interest groups on a 50 per cent subsidy. The balance amount would be financed through banks that can recover their share in installments. This will help the farmers’ groups to sell their produce directly to consumers for better profit,the official added.

About 50 mobile vending carts costing Rs 15,000 each and five motorised vending carts costing Rs 50,000 each will be distributed to farmers.

Officials added that under this scheme,250 farmers have already formed clusters comprising 15-20 members. Two vegetable seedling production centres — one at Rohtak and the other at Gurgaon— are being constructed at a cost of Rs 2.08 crore. Good quality and disease-free hybrid vegetable seedlings would be sold to to the farmers at 50 per cent subsidy at these centres.

Similarly,there is a provision to give Rs 2.36 lakh for construction of polygreen houses with a maximum of 4,000 square metre earmarked per farmer. Farmers’ associations will also be given assistance for cultivation of vegetables in open pollinated crops,as well as for hybrid vegetables,the spokesperson added.