Odisha to go for ‘sky watch’ monitoring of horticulture plantations

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, July 3:

With Odisha becoming a surplus state in quality planting materials for fruit bearing trees, the state government has decided to intensify horticulture plantation in the state.

(source : indiamart.com)
(source : indiamart.com)

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat here today, chief secretary JK Mohapatra asked the concerned departments to have ‘sky watch monitoring’ of horticultural plantations through remote sensing devices.

Present at the meeting, director, Horticulture, Sanjeev Chadha informed that the state is now in a position to export some of the species to other states except the Totapuri mango variety.

At present, around 111.01 lakh planting materials of various fruit species are available in departmental firms, Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation (OSCDC) and private nurseries of the state. The saplings have already been allotted to different districts for plantation during the current season and it is expected that targeted plantation for the current year will be achieved by September, he added.

As per the available data, fruit plantation was done in around 24,176 and 23,708 hectares in 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively.

While the plantation area has been increased to 29,020 hectares during 2013-14, action plan has been drawn for fruit plantation over 32583 hectares during 2014-15.

The meeting resolved to carry forward the convergence of horticultural plantation with Odisha Tribal Empowerment Livelihood Project (OTELP) Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDA) and watershed projects.

The funds from MGNREGA have also been roped in to this activity through convergence, the meeting revealed.

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