Horticulture authorities have come up with an action plan at a cost of nearly Rs.5 crores to take up area expansion by raising several varieties of fruit crops, rejuvenation of existing crops, post-harvest management and exposure visits of farmers to other states to learn about new techniques of cultivation in East Godavari.

Horticulture authorities have come up with an action plan at a cost of nearly Rs.5 crores to take up area expansion by raising several varieties of fruit crops, rejuvenation of existing crops, post-harvest management and exposure visits of farmers to other states to learn about new techniques of cultivation in East Godavari.

Farmers will be encouraged to raise five varieties of fruit crops including mango, cashew nut, papaya, banana and cocoa in the expanded area. Cocoa and vegetables will be raised as inter-crops in the select varieties of fruit crops proposed for raising.

Expansion of the area of cultivation of oil palm is also proposed and farmers will be given subsidy worth Rs.3,000 per hectare to raise vegetables as inter-crop and Rs.4,000 per hectare for fertilisers including vermin-compost.

Several varieties of vegetable seeds will also be given on 50% subsidy. Authorities also plan to take up rejuvenation of the existing horticulture crops. They intend to cut off unwanted and infected branches of unknown varieties of trees and allow development of tender shoots.

Then they will graft shoots brought from a known variety of fruit which is in high demand to the tender shoots of the grown up tree and get quality fruits.

In case of grown trees of known origin but no quality fruit, the authorities intend to remove all dead wood from the tree and expose it more to sunlight.

Exposure to sunlight is expected to help the tree to fight against pests and diseases, grow stronger and give a better yield.

The authorities plan to raise inter-crops in old gardens to fill gaps. Farmers will be given plant material free of cost under the National Rural Employ-ment Guarantee Scheme (NRGES). They also intend to provide various kinds of machinery at 50% subsidy to farmers.

Awareness campaign will also be taken up for farmers to adopt various techniques of cultivation to help improve yields, including exposure visits to other states.

The horticulture assistant director, Mr K. Ajay Babu said, “Our tentative action plan is aimed to expand cultivable area of horticulture crops and make them more viable and profitable to the farmers.”

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Channels> Cities> Region> Rajahmundry / by DC Correspondent / March 14th, 2012