NHB launches pilot phase of Cluster Development Programme in 11 states, UTs

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 31

Advertisement

To ensure holistic growth of horticulture, the National Horticulture Board (NHB) on Monday launched the pilot phase of the Cluster Development Programme covering 11 states and UTs, including Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The 12 clusters include Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (HP) for apple, Lucknow (UP), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for mango, Anantpur (AP), and Theni (TN) for banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for grapes, Siphahijala (Tripura) for pineapple, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for turmeric.

A central sector programme implemented by the NHB of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, the CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive. It is expected to attract an estimated investment of Rs 10,000 crore when implemented in the selected 53 clusters. The clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government, according to an official statement.

The programme was launched by Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in presence of ministers of state Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Chaudhary. Senior officials of the ministry, including Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, and Rajbir Singh, NHB Managing Director, were also present. Speaking on the occasion, Tomar said 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, officials said. The Ministry has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme. Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all the identified clusters.

Regarding its reach and impact, Tomar said, “doubling farmers’ income is one of the biggest priorities of our government. The 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% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.”

The programme is expected to converge with other initiatives of the Government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund which is a medium – long term financing facility for investment in projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets and will leverage the central sector scheme of the Ministry for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs).

The CDP 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, officials said. Ends.