Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Jul 21, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Jul 21, 2006 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables Tapioca, mushroom to come under horticulture Our Bureau
Coimbatore , July 20 The mission mode approach adopted by the Centre to promote horticultural crops will pave the way for including a few more, such as tapioca (cassava) and mushroom, according to Ms Radha Singh, Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation. The Centre would like to actively involve the State Governments in this regard, she said. Ms Singh was speaking after inaugurating a national seminar on "Convergence of technologies for organic horticulture" at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). She said the time was opportune for diversification into high-value horticultural crops. A beginning could be made through promotion of niche organic horticulture crops that enjoy good export scope. The challenges involve include transfer of technology to farmers, mapping and defining organic crop zones, and smoothening the process of their certification by way of decentralising certificating agencies. According to Ms Singh, one way to reduce the costs of securing certification is by grouping the farmers practising commercial organic farming. Globally, over 24 million hectares are under commercial organic farming, while in India most of the estimated 2.5 million hectares are uncertified crop areas. Dr M.L. Chaudhry, Commissioner of Horticulture, said the national horticultural mission had a special component providing incentives for farmers taking up organic farming. The Department of Horticulture proposes to increase the number of agencies that can be involved in certification of organic farming areas. Dr C. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor of TNAU, said some of the issues to be addressed were decentralising the commercial organic farming certification, and standardising the minimum conversion timeframe for farmers switching from conventional farming to organic farming.
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