Excellence Centres To Boost Horticulture And Food Processing In UP

In order to boost horticulture and food processing industry in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to set up excellence centres and mini excellence centres or hi-tech nurseries in all the 75 districts in the next five years.

According to the press release issued on May 22, the UP Government under leadership of Yogi Adityanathhas set ambitious targets to increase the area of cultivation of horticultural crops from 11.6 per cent to 16 per cent and food processing units from six per cent to a whopping 20 per cent to enhance the overall yield as well as processing of fruits, vegetables and spices.

Hi-tech nurseries set up by the government in Bahraich, Ambedkar Nagar, Mau, Fatehpur, Aligarh, Rampur and Hapur have already become operational, while Centres of Excellence are under construction in Chandauli, Kaushambi, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Kushinagar and Hapur.

The Indo-Israel Centre for Excellence has been established in Basti and Kannauj for fruits and vegetables respectively, so that farmers could get quality seedlings.

Furthermore, mini centres of excellence or hi-tech nurseries are under construction in Sonbhadra, Moradabad, Agra, SantKabir Nagar, Mahoba, Jhansi, Barabanki, Lucknow, Chandauli, Gonda, Balrampur, Budaun, Firozabad, Shamli and Mirzapur districts.

The government seeks to grow quality saplings and seeds at the excellence centres as well as hi-tech nurseries to increase production of quality crops. The objective behind the government’s move is also to provide sufficient crops for the increasing number of food processing industries.

According to press note, Uttar Pradesh has witnessed an increase of 0.7 per cent in the production of fruits and vegetables in the last five years due to expansion of its cultivation in an additional 1.01 lakh hectares.

The state government is also promoting protected farming through Indo-Israel technology to grow off season vegetables. In the last five years, poly houses and shed nets have been expanded in 177 hectares to enhance yield of flowers and vegetables, benefiting over 5,549 farmers.

Agriculture In UP

The climate of Uttar Pradesh is suitable for producing all kinds of horticultural crops. According to the government, the state holds leading position in total production of horticulture crops in the entire country.

In fact, for more than 92 per cent of small holding farmers, horticultural crops are the main source of higher income, employment and nutrition per unit area.

With the increasing importance of horticultural crops, its producers are aware and are improving economic status by adopting the horticultural crops while optimum utilisation of the available resources.

Department of Horticulture and Food Processing, Uttar Pradesh is making efforts for the continuous development by implementing various schemes for fruits, vegetables, potato, flowers, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants, betel-vine development along with subsidiary enterprises like bee-keeping, mushroom production, food processing and cultivation of betel-vine.

Agriculture In India

India has the second-largest arable land resources in the world. With 20 agri-climatic regions, all the 15 major climates in the world exist in India. The country also has 46 of the 60 soil types in the world.

Further, India is second in the global production of fruits and vegetables, and is the largest producer of mango and banana. During 2019-20 crop year, food grain production reached a record of 296.65 million tonnes. For FY 2021-22, the government had set a target to increase production by 3.9 per cent.

Production of horticulture crops in India reached a record 331.05 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2020–21, an increase of 10.5 million metric tonnes over FY20.

Schemes

In April 2021, the Indian government approved a Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme for the food processing sector with an incentive outlay of INR 10,900 crore over a period of six years starting from FY22.

To boost farmer incomes and growth of the agricultural economy, the government released funds in June, 2021 for farm mechanisation such as establishment of custom hiring centres, farm machinery bank and high-tech hubs in different states.