Ranchi: Apart from mango horticulture, other fruit plants like guava, lemon, pear, custard apple, ber, jackfruit, and drumstick horticulture have to be promoted in horticulture. Secretary, Rural Development Department, Prashant Kumar while addressing the meeting of the State Horticulture Advisory Committee organized in the auditorium of FOFP building said that horticulture of mixed fruit plants is to be encouraged.
He said that Under MNREGA, mango horticulture, guava horticulture, and shady tree plantation will be done through Birsa Harit Gr Yojana. He said that tree plantation work is being done in all the districts of the state under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojana. He informed that for the successful implementation of the Birsa Green Village Scheme, all the representatives of MNREGA and JSLPS will be re-trained for the horticulture scheme to be held in the year 2023-24.
In the meeting, it was decided that Didi Bagiya Yojana, run by the sisters of SHG, training and other assistance should be provided to the entrepreneurs to prepare fruit plants so that quality plants can be produced in the nursery. It was also decided to consider getting the nurseries established under the Didi Bagiya scheme registered with the National Horticulture Board through JSLPS.
It emerged in the meeting that it is necessary to train Horticulture Sakhis for the purpose of timely capacity building and to make them technically more capable, as continuous technical advice is given by them in the horticulture being done by the beneficiaries. Therefore, after training them, timely payment of wages should be ensured in lieu of the work done by them under horticulture.
Successful implementation of horticulture scheme is possible only on a large scale. When necessary human resources are deployed at Panchayat/Block and District level for cooperation in the scheme. Therefore, for this work, it was decided by the members of the committee to coordinate with the representative of Tasar Vikas Foundation and prepare a detailed report related to the human resources required for tree plantation, so that further action can be taken in this regard from the departmental level.
It was decided to provide a drip irrigation facility in horticulture through JSLPS under convergence under Birsa Harit Gram Yojana. The meeting further decided that work should be done to connect the institutions to which the members of the advisory committee are associated with the horticulture scheme being implemented in their work areas/districts so that the current status of the plants can be monitored during field visits from time to time and technical advice can also be given to them.
Along with this, technical cells will be formed in the state and district. Under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojana besides mango plants, other fruits like pear, orange, lemon, guava, jackfruit, dates, custard apple, etc which can be grown according to Jharkhand’s climate and it was also agreed to include bamboo, drumstick.
Along with this, it was also decided that mixed fruit horticulture should be ensured in at least 25 percent of the total horticulture area under each district in the financial year 2023-24. MNREGA Commissioner Rajeshwari B, Joint Secretary Rural Development Department Arun Kumar Singh, officials of the Forest Department, Agriculture, JSLPS, Central Tasar Training Institute and other officers were present in the meeting.