Horticulture schemes
Central government and J&K government together are trying to give high density plantations any new direction. They have introduced some new schemes including a subsidy in a scheme for orchardists.
Assistance to the tune of 50 per cent of the cost of planting material will be given directly to the farmers through DBT mode. The per plant cost of identified variety is fixed by a Price Determination Committee having members drawn from National Horticulture Board (NHB), Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH), Department of Horticulture and experts from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST). Director Horticulture, Kashmir is Convener of the Committee.” The 50 per cent assistance to be provided directly to the growers through DBT will be calculated on the basis of prices fixed by the Price Determination Committee on actual costs irrespective of transaction costs between the Nursery growers and the farmers.
An online portal inclusive of Monitoring Information System (MIS) has been put in place for registration of both eligible nursery growers and farmers for smooth implementation of the scheme. All the details including demand of identified plants from farmers and availability with nursery growers are uploaded on the portal.
Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, recently expressed gratitude to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Union Agriculture Minister for announcing availability of credit for the High Density Plantation scheme under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
