Orange crop to be taken on pilot basis under MGNREGS in Vid

15-04-14

The pilot project is to be implemented in total 150 hectares spread over Nagpur, Amravati, and Wardha districts

By Kartik Lokhande 

Oranges and Vidarbha are inseparables. In fact, Nagpur is also known as Orange City because of orange cultivation and export of oranges to other parts of the country and abroad. However, over the years, things have not remained the same as far as quality and productivity of orange fruit is concerned. Considering this, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) Directorate at Nagpur has decided to undertake a novel project.
The MGNREGS Directorate has chalked out a plan to implement a pilot project on orange cultivation under the widely popular scheme in three districts of Vidarbha. The project is proposed to be implemented in Nagpur, Amravati, and Wardha districts. In each district, 50 hectares of land will be covered under the project. At present, Vidarbha region has 1.48 lakh hectares of area under orange cultivation. Orange is a cash crop for farmers in the region. Against this backdrop, the project has been chalked out to give a boost to cultivation of quality oranges. The project is being implemented in Kharif season later this year.
According to Dr Uday Patil, Deputy Commissioner (Agriculture), MGNREGS Directorate, orange productivity in Maharashtra is 3.9 metric tonnes per hectare. Compared to other states, it is very low. Besides, only 13 per cent of the orange crop now fulfill the prevalent quality standards. “There is immense scope for marketing of the crop within and outside the country. However, owing to flaws in production methods and lack of scientific management, the production of oranges that qualify on the parameters of prevalent quality standards is less than desired,” he said.
Considering this, MGNREGS Directorate and Divisional Commissionerate (Nagpur) prepared a proposal for orange cultivation based on Indo-Israel technology. The Government cleared the proposal, which was prepared in consultation with National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (NABARD). The project will be implemented on the farms of orange-growers who are interested. The project period is three years, and use of drip-irrigation is mandatory. The expenditure to be incurred on drip-irrigation facility will be met from Convergence head of Agriculture Department.
According to Dr Uday Patil, many factors result in loss of orange crop. These include water accumulation, over-watering, inter-cropping, hot breeze, low micro-irrigation, Gummosis of citrus crop (known as ‘Dinkya’ in local parlance), lack of trimming as per requirement etc. “Proper planning, management, and adoption of scientific methods can avoid all the problems. Under the proposed scheme, care will be taken of various aspects. The scheme will definitely lead to increase in life of orange orchard, effective increase in quality and production of the citrus fruit, and rise in income of orange-growers,” he added.

The scheme details
Any land-holder is eligible to apply for the scheme. However, he/she must have job card issued under MGNREGS. The beneficiary will have to bear the labour expenses towards management of orange orchard, crop protection, fertigation etc. Besides, it is necessary to ensure that 90 and 95 per cent of trees are alive in second and third years. The aid to be provided by the Government under the scheme is Rs 2,04,034 per hectare. This includes Rs 1,44,457 per hectare for the first year; Rs 28,761 per hectare for the second year; and Rs 30,816 per hectare for the third year. But, there must be 555 trees per hectare.

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