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Shifts production attention to vegetables and upgrade farming skills of the farmers
Haryana horticulture department was formed as separate department in 1991.Initially horticulture was considered only an allied activity of the government and was not in focus, not many activities or schemes were introduced.However since the year 2005, with the announcement of nation-wide scheme “National Horticulture Mission” the growth of horticulture department across India has been fueled considerably.
Dr. Arjun Singh
Earlier Haryana state was known only for its traditional agriculture. “After NHM introduced lot of schemes and components, it changed the focus of Haryana towards horticultural produce. Later our state quickly adapted and implemented NHM like Maharashtra and other few states,” adds Dr. Arjun Singh Saini, Director General, Haryana Horticulture Department.
Change in trend
First and foremostthe focus was on fruits but the trend is changing towards cultivating more vegetables. Haryana being closest geographic location to capital city aims at providing good quality and organically grown fresh produce to the urban population residing in NCR Delhi.
NCR region itself has over 5 crore population and the demand for vegetables is increasing everyday. These demands are met by horticulture farm lands in 22 districts of Haryana out of which 13 are under NCR region.
“With 4.50 lakh hectare of land available for horticulture 85% of them are used for vegetables and 15% for fruits, flowers and spices to serve the big markets in Delhi. Vegetables are highly perishable crops and with the strategic locationHaryana could deliver the fresh produce to Delhi within 3-4 hours,” highlights Dr. Saini.
Budget allocation
Government has started allocating more funds to horticulture in the budget. “This year the state government has allocated Rs. 396 crore for horticulture department. It is a huge change compared to previous year’s allocation and of only Rs. 1 crore in 2005-06,” shares Dr. Saini.
Talking about technology playing major role and key to increase productivity and yield of farmers, “The allocated funds would be primarily utilized to mechanize and scientifically improve every horticultural practices,” he reveals
In that vision, it has collaborated with Israel Govt.under Indo Israel Work Plan to undertake 5 projects. In the first project, Rs. 6 crore has been allocated to establish Centre of Excellence of Vegetables,Gharaunda, Karnal district that aims to improve vegetable productivity, poly-house, micro irrigations, newer varieties of vegetables, organic farming and use of technology like IPM. About 22 acre of farming comes under this centre.
“In the second project the focusis on fruits. Select 5- 6 crops like olive, pomegranate, guava and many good varieties of fruits have already been planted at Mangiana, Sirsa at Project site,” informs Dr. Saini.
The third project is the breeding and pollination of honey bees and production of honey named as Integrated Bee-Keeping Development Centre (IBDC) in Kurukshetra District.
Fourth project shall involve cultivation of subtropical fruits like mangoes, pear, peach, plum in Kurukshetra. Lastly, fifth project would be the cultivation of flowersin Jhajjar District through open and protected cultivation technology. “In future, Government is planning to have at least one of these centers in each of all 22 districts of Haryana,” he states.
Groundwater in Haryana
Haryana state has two distinct scenario, in North where underground water is good but depleting fast,whereas in South zone water scarcity is an issue. This problem is addressed through micro-irrigation and around 7 lakh ha. area has been covered under micro Irrigation,” highlights Dr. Saini.
Organic Farming
To promote chemical free farming, a new scheme has been introduced ‘Good agricultural practices and monitoring pest residue’. Dr. Saini shares, “The scheme was started in one district and today it is practiced throughout Haryana. Under this program samples of horticultural output from everystages of the development taken to government laboratory testing facility in Gurugram and results are analyzed for amount of pesticide residue. Based on the analysis they form strategies to reduce the pesticide usage. Awareness programs and campaigns are conducted during May/June of every year to educate the ill effects of using pesticides and how to manage pests using alternative methods.”
There are about 340 Baagwani villages which are horticulture villages that have about 200 acres of horticulture farm land in each village. These villages form clusters and there are about 140 such clusters which is holding 3-4 village per cluster.
Sales and Marketing
Recently Rs. 510crore has been approved to implement “Crop Cluster Development Program”on horticultural practices of farmer. “One of the main aim is to establish integrated back housing in these clusters. One such cluster is getting 70-90% government subsidy in infrastructure development. These clusters are managed by farmers’ welfare group. The purpose of the integrated back housing is to aggregate farm outputs to market directly instead of going through different mandis,” he states.
Department aims at linking each cluster to a common mandi or an e-mandi to enable them market their product in one place. E-mandi is also part of phase 2 development that will also help promote cashless transaction among farmers and traders.E-Mandi will also help in faster physical movement of goods.
Cashless Agriculture
Talking more on cashless economy and how Haryana farmers are adapting to the change, Dr. Saini says, “All the benefits that are passed on from government to farmers are cashless, enabled by direct benefit transfer. They have two major systems, one is HORTNET that receives and process applications for NHM schemes online the other is MINET for microirrigation support schemes. Funds are directly credited to beneficiary account.” However the reciprocation of the same from farmers may take some time as they are still procuring their farms inputs through cash, however, complete transformation in every transaction will surely happen over a period of time.”
MoU with ASCI
Haryana Horticulture department has signed MoU with ASCI (Agriculture Skill council of India under ministry of skill development) a month before. The scheme aims at promoting 22 major skill sets out of which some key skills like maintenance and repair of equipments/machineries/ poly house, advance technology in food processing, refrigeration and cooling etc shall be taught to the farmers,” he shares. Farmers need not call the company people everytime instead must improve their skillsto be self equipped to handle these minor problems.
Future plans
In time to come,the state has planned to produce exotic vegetables which can see some demand and opportunities from other state and international trade. “Time has come to switch the focus to vegetable production that satisfies the nutritional demand of rural and urban population. We are self sufficient with food grains and infact in surplus but fruits and vegetables are important to meet the nutritional demands of the people. As people are becoming more aware of their health they demand the right nutrition from the vegetables for a healthy lifestyle. We have to move from traditional horticulture to advanced horticulture by introducing new technology, new variety and good agricultural practices to meet the demand,” concludes Dr. Saini.
Dr. Arjun Singh Saini holds many degrees and doctorate in horticulture sciences. He served in a private and public sector for 11 years before joining Haryana government horticulture department in the year 2004.Horticulture being his passion, he progressed his career from Dy. Director. Now, he holds two important positions one is Director General of horticulture to carry out horticultural extension activities of Government. The second responsibility as managing director of SFACH Haryana to help and promote farmer interest groups, self help groups and welfare groups that aims at value addition, aggregation of farm produce.
Contact details:
Director General Horticulture
UdyanBhawan, Sector-21, Panchkula-134112, Haryana, INDIA
Phone: 0172-2582322, 2582589
Email: hortharyana@gmail.com , horticulture@hry.nic.in
Haryana horticulture department was formed as separate department in 1991.Initially horticulture was considered only an allied activity of the government and was not in focus, not many activities or schemes were introduced.However since the year 2005, with the announcement of nation-wide scheme “National Horticulture Mission” the growth of horticulture department across India has been fueled considerably.
Dr. Arjun Singh
Earlier Haryana state was known only for its traditional agriculture. “After NHM introduced lot of schemes and components, it changed the focus of Haryana towards horticultural produce. Later our state quickly adapted and implemented NHM like Maharashtra and other few states,” adds Dr. Arjun Singh Saini, Director General, Haryana Horticulture Department.
Change in trend
First and foremostthe focus was on fruits but the trend is changing towards cultivating more vegetables. Haryana being closest geographic location to capital city aims at providing good quality and organically grown fresh produce to the urban population residing in NCR Delhi.
NCR region itself has over 5 crore population and the demand for vegetables is increasing everyday. These demands are met by horticulture farm lands in 22 districts of Haryana out of which 13 are under NCR region.
“With 4.50 lakh hectare of land available for horticulture 85% of them are used for vegetables and 15% for fruits, flowers and spices to serve the big markets in Delhi. Vegetables are highly perishable crops and with the strategic locationHaryana could deliver the fresh produce to Delhi within 3-4 hours,” highlights Dr. Saini.
Budget allocation
Government has started allocating more funds to horticulture in the budget. “This year the state government has allocated Rs. 396 crore for horticulture department. It is a huge change compared to previous year’s allocation and of only Rs. 1 crore in 2005-06,” shares Dr. Saini.
Talking about technology playing major role and key to increase productivity and yield of farmers, “The allocated funds would be primarily utilized to mechanize and scientifically improve every horticultural practices,” he reveals
In that vision, it has collaborated with Israel Govt.under Indo Israel Work Plan to undertake 5 projects. In the first project, Rs. 6 crore has been allocated to establish Centre of Excellence of Vegetables,Gharaunda, Karnal district that aims to improve vegetable productivity, poly-house, micro irrigations, newer varieties of vegetables, organic farming and use of technology like IPM. About 22 acre of farming comes under this centre.
“In the second project the focusis on fruits. Select 5- 6 crops like olive, pomegranate, guava and many good varieties of fruits have already been planted at Mangiana, Sirsa at Project site,” informs Dr. Saini.
The third project is the breeding and pollination of honey bees and production of honey named as Integrated Bee-Keeping Development Centre (IBDC) in Kurukshetra District.
Fourth project shall involve cultivation of subtropical fruits like mangoes, pear, peach, plum in Kurukshetra. Lastly, fifth project would be the cultivation of flowersin Jhajjar District through open and protected cultivation technology. “In future, Government is planning to have at least one of these centers in each of all 22 districts of Haryana,” he states.
Groundwater in Haryana
Haryana state has two distinct scenario, in North where underground water is good but depleting fast,whereas in South zone water scarcity is an issue. This problem is addressed through micro-irrigation and around 7 lakh ha. area has been covered under micro Irrigation,” highlights Dr. Saini.
Organic Farming
To promote chemical free farming, a new scheme has been introduced ‘Good agricultural practices and monitoring pest residue’. Dr. Saini shares, “The scheme was started in one district and today it is practiced throughout Haryana. Under this program samples of horticultural output from everystages of the development taken to government laboratory testing facility in Gurugram and results are analyzed for amount of pesticide residue. Based on the analysis they form strategies to reduce the pesticide usage. Awareness programs and campaigns are conducted during May/June of every year to educate the ill effects of using pesticides and how to manage pests using alternative methods.”
There are about 340 Baagwani villages which are horticulture villages that have about 200 acres of horticulture farm land in each village. These villages form clusters and there are about 140 such clusters which is holding 3-4 village per cluster.
Sales and Marketing
Recently Rs. 510crore has been approved to implement “Crop Cluster Development Program”on horticultural practices of farmer. “One of the main aim is to establish integrated back housing in these clusters. One such cluster is getting 70-90% government subsidy in infrastructure development. These clusters are managed by farmers’ welfare group. The purpose of the integrated back housing is to aggregate farm outputs to market directly instead of going through different mandis,” he states.
Department aims at linking each cluster to a common mandi or an e-mandi to enable them market their product in one place. E-mandi is also part of phase 2 development that will also help promote cashless transaction among farmers and traders.E-Mandi will also help in faster physical movement of goods.
Cashless Agriculture
Talking more on cashless economy and how Haryana farmers are adapting to the change, Dr. Saini says, “All the benefits that are passed on from government to farmers are cashless, enabled by direct benefit transfer. They have two major systems, one is HORTNET that receives and process applications for NHM schemes online the other is MINET for microirrigation support schemes. Funds are directly credited to beneficiary account.” However the reciprocation of the same from farmers may take some time as they are still procuring their farms inputs through cash, however, complete transformation in every transaction will surely happen over a period of time.”
MoU with ASCI
Haryana Horticulture department has signed MoU with ASCI (Agriculture Skill council of India under ministry of skill development) a month before. The scheme aims at promoting 22 major skill sets out of which some key skills like maintenance and repair of equipments/machineries/ poly house, advance technology in food processing, refrigeration and cooling etc shall be taught to the farmers,” he shares. Farmers need not call the company people everytime instead must improve their skillsto be self equipped to handle these minor problems.
Future plans
In time to come,the state has planned to produce exotic vegetables which can see some demand and opportunities from other state and international trade. “Time has come to switch the focus to vegetable production that satisfies the nutritional demand of rural and urban population. We are self sufficient with food grains and infact in surplus but fruits and vegetables are important to meet the nutritional demands of the people. As people are becoming more aware of their health they demand the right nutrition from the vegetables for a healthy lifestyle. We have to move from traditional horticulture to advanced horticulture by introducing new technology, new variety and good agricultural practices to meet the demand,” concludes Dr. Saini.
Dr. Arjun Singh Saini holds many degrees and doctorate in horticulture sciences. He served in a private and public sector for 11 years before joining Haryana government horticulture department in the year 2004.Horticulture being his passion, he progressed his career from Dy. Director. Now, he holds two important positions one is Director General of horticulture to carry out horticultural extension activities of Government. The second responsibility as managing director of SFACH Haryana to help and promote farmer interest groups, self help groups and welfare groups that aims at value addition, aggregation of farm produce.
Contact details:
Director General Horticulture
UdyanBhawan, Sector-21, Panchkula-134112, Haryana, INDIA
Phone: 0172-2582322, 2582589
Email: hortharyana@gmail.com , horticulture@hry.nic.in