Mega national agriculture expo to be held in Nagpur from Feb 9

Grand preparations are underway for the mega National Agriculture Exhibition being organised to commemorate the birth centenary of former Maharashtra Chief Minster Vasantrao Naik from February 9 here.
The exhibition will be held from Feb 9-13 at the 45-acre sprawling premises of Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) at Panjri near here.
It is being organised by Union Agriculture Ministry in collaboration with the state government. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar conceptualised the basic concept of this expo, according to sources.
Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary S K Goel (Agriculture and Marketing) and Divisional Commissioner V Gopala Reddy reviewed the preparations here in a meeting yesterday.

About 400 stalls of various agro products, equipments and materials will be set up, official sources said.
About 50,000-60,000 farmers from all over the region and across the states are likely to visit the exhibition every day. Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is heading the state level co-ordination committee.

The expo will provide an opportunity to government, women, farmers, researchers and entrepreneurs besides agro product manufacturers to utilise the common platform.
It will provide basic information on rain fed crops, irrigated corps, irrigation facilities and its improvements along with dairy development, fisheries, sericulture, poultry, horticulture and floricultre, the sources added.

The administration has acquired about 125 wedding halls to accommodate farmers for their stay. Also, free transport facilities will be provided by the organisers.
The first such national exhibition was organised during the regime of Agriculture Minister Punjabrao Deshmukh way back, from December 1-February 29 in 1959, Goel said.