July 19: The Maharashtra government expects to attract investment worth Rs 5,000 crore over the next three years through its three-day exhibition, `Agro Advantage Maharashtra', to be held in Mumbai from November 6 to 9. Agriculture contributes over 22 per cent of the state's annual income, major growth in the sector having been from sugar. With stagnation in the sector, attention has now shifted to horticulture, floriculture and aquaculture.Horticulture received a major boost in the past several years through a systematic effort which linked it with the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and wasteland development schemes of the state government. Acreage under horticulture has risen from 2.42 lakh hectares in 1990-91 to 10.73 lakh hectares in 1998-99, though only 3.59 lakh hectares are productive.
Investments in the sector have been in the region of Rs 500 core, over the past eight years. Major fruits that are promoted are Alphonso mango, Thompson seedless grapes, Nagpur oranges (mandarins), bananas,coconut, chikoo, custard apple, sweet lime, tamarind, ber, jamun and the non- traditional and pomegranates.
Incidentally, the state supplies the country's demand for the fruit. The scheme brought 7.70 lakh hectares under fruit cultivation over a seven-year period, 1990-97, in over 35,000 of the state's 40,412 villages. Mango cultivation accounts for 2.96 lakh ha (38 per cent), oranges 86 lakh ha. (11 per cent), ber 69 lakh ha (10 per cent) and pomegranate and lemons 56 lakh ha (6 per cent).
During 1997-98, it was decided to encourage planting of `masala' crops in the Konkan region as an inter crop with coconut with the aim of bringing 400 hectares under such cultivation. Mango cultivation in this region was targeted to cover 2,000 ha in 1997-98 of which 111 ha has been completed.
This programme was earlier restricted to Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of the Konkan. From the current year, it will be extended to the entire Konkan region. The state government has taken a policy decision that allplantations done in the current year will use the 323.39 lakh saplings available within the state. To this end, it will use the saplings from 140 government run nurseries, 1600 private recognised nurseries and the 42 agriculture colleges.Since this is a scheme under the EGS, rates of payment have gone up from Rs 23 to Rs 37. However, one major issue is lack of storage and processing facilities. The state has 30 cold stores, which are woefully inadequate for the quantum of fruit produced.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page
