Imports of plating material to be fully subsidised in revamped National Horticulture Mission

The government has decided to fully fund the cost of import of best quality planting material in horticultural crops to all state governments and public sector undertakings under National Horticultural Mission and sub schemes like Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH).

Meanwhile this decision was taken under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture  (MIDH) which is a centrally sponsored scheme  for  the holistic  growth  of  the  horticulture  sector covering fruits, vegetables, root & tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo.    

Under this mission, Government of India (GOI) will contribute 85% of the total outlay for developmental programmes in all states  except North East and Himalayas where the contribution will be 100%.

MIDH is central scheme to run through 12th Plan period ( 2012-2017) subsuming all other existing  schemes in horticulture development like Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States ( HMNEH), National Horticulture Board ( NHB), National Bamboo Mission, Central Institute for Horticulture and  Coconut Development Board (CDH).  

According to officials, technology will play an important role in different interventions such  as Information  Communication  Technology  (ICT),  Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System will be widely used for planning and monitoring purposes  including identification  of  sites  for  creating infrastructure facilities for post harvest management, markets and production forecasts.

Under production and distribution of planting materials, this mission will help in setting up nurseries, tissue culture units, vegetable seed production, import of planting material, establishment of new gardens, seed infrastructure, mushroom production, rejuvenation of less productive orchards and plantations, Creation of Water Sources, Protected Cultivation like green house, net house and plastic tunnels.

Several new initiatives have been adopted under this mission like bee keeping, Precision Farming Development Centres (PFDC), horticulture  mechanisation, post harvest management and cold storage infrastructure. Precision Farming Development Centres (PFDC) which will be involved in developing regionally differentiated  technologies for development of localized horticulture crops.  The scheme will also promote organic farming, only for those crops which command premium by way of adoption of organic farming techniques.

Horticulture mechanization is aimed to improve farm efficiency and reduce drudgery of  farm  work  force. Assistance for horticulture mechanization will be available to grower associations, farmer groups, Self Help Groups, women farmer groups having at least 10 members, who are engaged in cultivation of horticultural crops, provided balance 60% of the cost of machines and tools is borne by such groups.

Under  post-harvest  management,  including  that for Medicinal  plants,activities like handling,  grading,  pre-conditioning,  packaging, transient storage, transportation,  distribution,  curing  and  ripening  and  where  possible  long  term storage  can be taken up.These projects will be entrepreneur driven  and provided  credit linked  back-ended  subsidy.