Hyderabad-based eFresh, a multi-lingual portal serving all the stakeholders in the food chain starting from the farmer, has been mandated by Jain Irrigation Systems Limited and Coca-Cola India to train and empower farmers in Andhra Pradesh for increasing mango productivity, quality and safety of the produce and for sustainability.
The initiative is part of Coca-Cola and Jain irrigation’s Project Unnati, a partnership with farmers to demonstrate and enable adoption of ultra-high density plantation, a farming practice that leads to mango orchards attaining their full potential in 3-4 years and also allows nearly 600 trees to be planted in an acre instead of the conventional method of planting 40 trees in an acre.
“Training will be conducted in the villages of Andhra Pradesh by using a mobile bus, which has the facility to accommodate about 20 farmers. The bus is equipped with all tools for dissemination of knowledge to the farmers,” Srihari, managing director of eFresh, said in a press release on Tuesday.
The Phase-I of the programme with ultra-density mango farming has commenced in Chittoor district, which is known for its production of Totapuri mango variety, a key ingredient in the country’s largest selling mango drink ‘Maaza’.
“The programme will be extended to districts like Kadapa and other parts of Andhra Pradesh, on a need basis. An average of 700 farmers will be benefited under this training programme every month,” Srihari said.
