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A top official of the National Horticulture Board (NHB) has urged the farmers to take up the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and flowers in cluster approach.
Speaking at a ‘kissan mela’ organised by the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) at Kidu (around 100 km from Mangaluru) in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka on Saturday, Ariz Ahammed, Managing Director of National Horticulture Board, said NHB promotes the cultivation of fruits in open condition and vegetables and flowers in protected condition (in green houses).
Stressing the need to have cluster approach in the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and flowers, he said it will help provide better returns to the farmers.
Normally cluster approach involves three linkages — horizontal, vertical and collaborative.
Most of the farmers buy fertilisers, planting materials and many other input materials individually. But when a group of farmers buys these materials together, farmers can get them at a lesser price. This horizontal linkage of farmers can also be leveraged while selling their produce. Then they will have the powers to bargain with the market participants for their produce.
Horizontal linkage
This dynamics of horizontal linkages among farmers plays an important role in cluster approach, he said.
Farmers’ relationship with traders, input suppliers, fertiliser and pesticide dealers, seed suppliers, marketing operators, and the farm processors leads to vertical linkages. Farmers’ relationship with universities, research institutes, and technical experts forms the part of collaborative linkage, he said.
The whole exercise of cluster approach becomes meaningful when farmers have all these three linkages, he said.
Farmers should also have the road map for the next few years while taking up these crops on cluster approach, he added.
P Chowdappa, Director of CPCRI, briefed the role of Kidu research centre of CPCRI in developing, maintaining and promoting coconut varieties. The International Coconut Gene Bank for South Asia in Kidu is one among the five gene banks that was set up under the Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT). With 39 countries as its members, COGENT promotes collaboration for the conservation and use of coconut genetic resources across the globe.
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