CII pushes for fruit, vegetable clusters in Punjab, Haryana

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 17

The industry has proposed a cluster approach to enhance farmers’ income in Punjab and Haryana. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has offered its help to the two states to develop agri-clusters of onion, potato, peas, citrus fruits and mango on the lines of industrial clusters such as Jalandhar’s sports goods manufacturers and Panipat’s carpet makers.

“We will identify the crops on the basis of the strength of the particular region and provide all necessary support to the farmers of the region and help them in forming various clusters of fruits and vegetables,” CII president Rakesh Bharti Mittal told The Tribune.

The two states have tremendous potential to become hub of agro-based industries, he said. “We see enormous potential for places like Panipat, Karnal and Jalandhar,” he added. CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (FACE) will help farmers in setting up such clusters.

The centre will work closely with farmers in not just improving productivity, but also to improve its competitiveness and income, he said. The centre will share best agricultural practices with farmers, including assisting them in getting best quality seeds, genuine pesticides and other logistics.

“We are in talks with the government of the two states. The two states have taken interest in the project. We are, therefore, planning to launch a couple of agricultural clusters on pilot basis,” he said.

The centre will also provide training to farmers and help in strengthening the supply chain management through information sharing and technical consultancy. “Better logistics would also give an impetus to supplementing farmers’ income, through improved transportation and storage of perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetables,” Mittal said.

Stressing the need to expedite agricultural reforms, Mittal said the state government should amend the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act so that the farmers should be free to sell their produce anywhere to get the best price. “These reforms have potential to raise the income of farmers by almost 40%,” he said.

At a meeting with Niti Aayog, CII had proposed to launch ranking of states on the basis of agriculture reforms. “Like ‘ease of doing business’ we can have something like ‘ease of doing agriculture or something like that. This will enhance competiveness,” he said.

For doubling farmers’ income, the government should focus on creating rural infrastructure and land reforms. Crop diversification is necessary in states like Punjab. The cluster approach can help farmers to move away from traditional wheat and rice cropping pattern to high-value crops, he said.

Punjab has already launched centre of excellence for vegetables at Kartarpur in Jalandhar in collaboration with Israel. Haryana has a similar centre for vegetables in Karnal and for fruits in Sirsa. These centres have been set up in collaboration with Israel.

Vegetable production

Area under cultivation Output

Haryana  

4.1 lakh  hectares 61.57 lakh tonnes

Punjab

2.1 lakh hectares 42.40 lakh tonnes

(Source: Horticulture Departments, data for year 2015-16)