New Haryana plan for a big boost to agro-marketing
By Riti, Section GN
Posted on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 12:30:17 AM EST
Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board has ambitious plans to give a big boost to agro-marketing in the State by setting up a network of agro shopping malls, specific commodity hubs, cold chain facilities and flower market so as to benefit the farmers as well as the consumers.
Haryana Agriculture Minister H.S. Chatha said on Monday that the Marketing Board would shortly commence the construction of agro shopping malls at Panipat, Karnal and Gurgaon at an estimated cost of Rs.97crore. One such mall is already being constructed at Panchkula at a cost of Rs.40 crore. He said that setting up of a flower market at Gurgaon has already been approved in principle and it would boost floriculture in the region.
Mr. Chatha said that specific commodity hubs for fruit and vegetables would also be set up in a phased manner. In the first phase these would come up at Shahbad for potato, Abubshahar for kinnow, Jhajjar for onion, Yamunanagar for mango, Karnal for tomato and Sonepat for mushroom.
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Processing units
He said that there was also a plan to set up processing units for various commodities in a phased manner so as to have grading, packing and primary processing of horticulture production, which would result in value addition for the produce. Also, multi-commodity hubs would also be set up at nine places including Faridabad, Hisar, Jind, Pehowa, Gurgaon, Rohtak, Panipat, Panchkula and Narnaul.
Expressing his concern over post-harvest losses, Mr. Chatha said that cold chain facilities were being created in a phased manner to help farmers in protecting their perishable produce. In the first phase, such facilities would be created at 11 places in Haryana at a cost of Rs.71 crore. These places included, Panchkula, Panipat, Hisar, Narnaul, Rohtak, Karnal, Gurgaon, Sirsa, Shahbad, Jhajjar and Sonipat.
He said that the Board was providing Rs.13 crore to provide cold chain facilities in four mandis in the State. Mr. Chatha added that an apple market is fast coming up at Panchkula at an estimated cost of Rs.8 crore and it would be completed by the end of the current financial year.
Source:The Hindu July22nd,2008.
