The Union Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries..

The Union Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries..
The Union Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Shri Sharad Pawar addressing the AGM of ICAR society, in New Delhi on March 06, 2012.

Cultivation of Vegetables begins under Vegetable initiatives for Urban Cluster Scheme  Consultative Committee of Food Processing Industries Meets

Rs. 208 crore has been released so far to States and Union Territories for the implementation of Vegetable Initiatives for Urban Cluster (VIUC). Base line survey has been completed in 29 cities to assess the existing and projected demand and also intermediaries involved in the vegetable supply chain.Addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Food Processing Industries, Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries said that the cultivation of vegetables has also commenced since September 2011 in almost all the States. He informed that the process of creating post harvest management and market infrastructure facilities is on.The Minister further said “VIUC has also been successful in mobilizing farmers into Farmer Interest Groups (FIG) and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) along with their tie up with market aggregators and Financial Institutions. For this purpose, assistance is available at the rate Rs. 2.00 lakh per FIG comprising of 15-20 farmers. In order to facilitate the farmers in forming FIGs and FPOs, we have involved thirteen Resource Institutions. So far, about 3000 FIGs and 50 FPOs have been formed by mobilizing about 62,000 farmers. The target is to mobilize about 1.3 lakh farmers in and around the identified cities in 29 States.”The scheme was launched in this financial year (2011-12) to set in motion a cycle of enhanced production and income for farmers and an assured supply of vegetable to consumers by addressing all issues in the vegetable production, supply and distribution chain. Starting with a base line survey to assess the existing vegetable supply chain in select urban cluster, it was also mandated to identify the bottlenecks, suggest remedial measures and look at the potential areas from where vegetable supply could be augmented. The scheme is being implemented under the Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with the objective to cover one city in each State which is either the State capital or any other city with a population of over 10 lakh. If no city in a state satisfies this criteria, any other urban cluster having a larger population could be included. The total allocation for the scheme for 2011-12 is Rs. 300 crore.The Ministers of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Shri Harish Rawat and Dr. Charan Das Mahant were present in the meeting.

The Members of Parliament who attended the meeting included: Dr. Kirit Premjibhai Solanki and Shri Raju alias Devappa Anna Shetti of Lok Sabha and Shri S.B. Behera and Shri Raghunandan Sharma of Rajya Sabha.

Author: sarkarimirror