The Haryana government proposes to set up a flower auction hall at Gurgaon with a view to giving a fillip to floriculture industry in the state.
The Haryana Agro-Industries Corporation has engaged a consultant to conduct the feasibility for setting up the proposed flower auction hall.
The state government has also approached the Centre for providing financial assistance for the project, which will cater to the needs of the entire northern region, state agriculture minister Karan Singh Dalal told Business Standard.
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The minister said that there is urgent need to remove the bottlenecks being faced by both the floriculture and the horticulture industry.
He stressed the need to set up an agency for producing quality seeds, especially the hybrid varieties.
He pointed out that at present the private sector is mainly engaged in producing the hybrid varieties and as the prices of these varieties are very high, the farmers find it beyond their reach to adopt them.
The minister is of the view that the agriculture universities in the states should play the lead role in producing hybrid varieties and the planting material.
Dalal said that as there is huge post-harvest losses, both in horticulture and floriculture, there is an urgent need to introduce a suitable and modern system of storage, grading, transportation and marketing. He also emphasised the need to modernise fruit and vegetable mandis all over the state.
Dalal lamented that India, despite being one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world, makes small contribution in the world trade.
He argued, The main reason is that the value addition is very little. He stressed the need to promote agro-based industries in the country which will not only benefit the farmers in a big way, but also help the country in achieving value addition and earn foreign exchange through exports of processed fruits and vegetables.
The minister also expressed the view that the dependence on chemical fertilisers should be minimised to reduce land and water pollution. The need of the hour is to educate the farmers regarding the balanced use of chemical fertilisers and promote the use of bio-mass, organic and inorganic fertilisers to check the depleting soil fertility and ensure sustainable agriculture, Dalal said.
He pointed out that salinity is a serious problem in many parts of Haryana, just as in a number of other states in the country. He admitted that despite carrying out a number of experiments, the state government had yet to find a viable solution to deal with the problem of salinity in order to reclaim the saline land on a large scale.
The minister suggested that the Centre should come forward with a suitable package of incentives to motivate the farmers for the purpose.
He said that the Centre should launch a technological mission to deal with the problem of saline land.
He pointed out that about 55 per cent underground water in Haryana is brackish and most of it remains untapped. He suggested that the Centre should liberally assist the state government in the development of viable technologies for the growth of horticulture and aqua-culture in saline water.
Dalal mentioned that decline in the water table in many parts of Haryana is another serious problem being faced by the state. He admitted that overexploitation of groundwater to meet the irrigation needs of wheat-paddy rotation was the main cause for the decline in the water table in many parts of Haryana.
He said the state government is making efforts to educate the farmers to go in for diversification of crop patterns by promoting horticulture and floriculture in the state.
The minister regretted that the market intervention scheme to promote the cultivation of mushrooms, oilseeds and onions, being jointly operated by the Centre and the state government, has not been working satisfactorily, mainly because of lack of resources.
He suggested that to make the marketing intervention scheme more effective, the Centre should modify the scheme and like in case of wheat and paddy, also recommend support prices for the crops covered under the scheme.