Training for protected cultivation

Claiming to be a one of its kind in Asia in terms of practical greenhouse training the centre has trained over 13,000 people since its inception around six years ago. The Horticulture training centre that was established in 2002 by the Maharashtra state Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB) in association with the Practical Training Centre (PTC +) of The Netherlands,under National Institute of Post-harvest Technology (NIPHT) is co-financed by The Netherlands Development Finance Company,(FMO),Den Haag,a Government of Netherlands. The courses offered vary from automation in protected cultivation,crop specific courses,cultivation of open field flowers,green and exotic vegetables,cultivation of commercial horticulture crops and so on.

“Along with training modules we also offer technical services,for instance preparation of techno-economic project reports and technical consultancy in protected cultivation and horticultural projects. With two batches of 24 people,the courses are of a week’s duration,and we have farmers as well as entrepreneurs from across the country as well as Srilanka,Pakistan and Bhutan visiting and undergoing training with us. The residential programme is offered in Hindi,Marathi and English and covers everything from site selection to marketing,” says Suresh Dhumal,director,National Institute of Post Harvest Technology.

The centre besides students from nearby colleges also has members of agri division of RBI who deal with financing the farmers,attending their two-day programmes. “The most popular are Rose / Gerbera and Carnation. The others are color capsicum,orchid / vegetable,Vanilla,Jatropha,Stevia cultivation and so on. Four lakh is the maximum investment required on a 500 square meter area including irrigation,” adds Sanjay Parade,training coordinator.

Situated at Talegaon Dabhade on the Pune-Mumbai Highway,the 50-acre area offers residential training to its trainees with half of them from outside the state. The weeklong training has a new batch inducted every Monday. The faculty is also supported by Dutch experts. “Although there is a constant response for the trainings the last financial year did not see much increase in its adoption due to the slow down. Currently 375 hectares of land is available in Maharashtra under greenhouse while the rest of the country has around 1100 hectares with most of it in Bangalore,’ adds Dhumal.