Announcing this initiative, Minister for Non-conventional Energy and Horticulture Vinay Kore, who was was in the city for an international meet on grapes and wines, told media persons that the proposal would be put before the state cabinet in the next couple of months. "We will ensure that the formation of the board will address the production issues independently," said Kore.

Kore said an independent board for horticulture would help bring more focus on issues related to horticulture. With horticulture coming under the National Horticulture Mission(NHM) and a directorate at the state level, the minister added that there was a move to de-link horticulture from agriculture. Sharing statistics, he said that the state accounts for 40-50 per cent of the total grape production in the country, with 25 per cent share being that of banana and 60 per cent of the total pomegranate production in the country.

Besides the board for horticulture, the ministry also plans to set up a couple of wine institutes to create skilled manpower for the industry. "Maharashtra makes around 1.42 crore litres of wine. However, per capita consumption is negligible as compared 60-80 litres of wine per year in France, Italy and Australia," said Kore.

The first institute would come up at Palus in the MIDC belt of Sangli district and the location for the second institute is yet to be identified, he said. The state technical education department is currently working on framing the syllabus for the institutes and the ministry is also looking into the possibility of tie-ups with overseas institutions for granting degrees to students, he said. The idea is to set up institutes in the major wine-growing district such as Nashik, Solapur and Sangli.

Marketing of horticulture produce need attention: Kore

State Horticulture Minister Vinay Kore said that efforts were on to create powerful brand values for horticulture and floriculture produce, along the lines of Gujarat’s ‘Amul’. He said that the state will push to create a separate scheme for marketing and branding under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

“Three years ago, the government allotted Rs 15,000 crore for NHM. Maharashtra was allotted 18 per cent of the money (Rs 2,700 crore). There is a lot of unutilised money that can be used to fund the scheme to create a brand,” Kore said. However, he did not reveal the unspent amount.

While speaking to the media at the sidelines of the National Conference on Banana at the city College of Agriculture on Friday, Kore said that a proposal on these lines will be sent to the Central Government within a fortnight.

“The state has done a lot to increase production but we are yet to exploit the marketing potential. While we do need to increase production, we need to pay more attention to marketing,” he said.

Kore said that the distribution network for fruits ought to be improved. “Private companies that are in the business can also take up the cudgels to develop the marketing infrastructure, the government will help,” Kore said, adding that there was a need to develop Good Agriculture Practices for the domestic market.