Horticulture sector of Tripura has received a major boost after Sepahijala Cluster of the State has been included for pineapple in Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP) on Monday.
Notably, Tripura is already exporting pineapple and the inclusion is expected to harness the capacity building of the sector.
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar virtually launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP) on Monday. In a pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters including Sepahijala cluster out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme.
A central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
Tomar, in his speech, highlighted that the programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
The programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme. Based on the learning from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all the identified clusters.
Talking about the reach and impact of the programme, Tomar said, ‘Doubling farmers’ income is one of the biggest priorities of our government. CDP will benefit about 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain. With this programme, we aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by approx. 20 percent and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.” CDP is expected to attract an estimated investment of INR 10,000 crore when implemented in all the 53 clusters.
The clusters of the pilot phase include Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple, Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (H.P.) for Apple, Lucknow (U.P.), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango, Anantpur (A.P.) and Theni (T.N.) for Banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for Turmeric. These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.
The Cluster Development Programme has a huge potential to transform the entire horticulture ecosystem improving its global competitiveness by building last-mile connectivity with the use of multimodal transport for the efficient and timely evacuation and transport of horticulture produce.