Kota (Rajasthan), Jul 19 (PTI) A citrus fruit cluster in Kota has been declared leader of all eight such units set up across the country with an aim to boost the cultivation of citrus fruit varieties, an official said on Friday.
The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Citrus at Nanta village on Bundi road in Kota was established in 2014 under an Indo-Israel pact for the development of horticulture in the country.
Spread over 9 hectares, the facility has trained 22,000 farmers of Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar and Baran districts in institutional training programmes in the past 10 years and developed over 27 varieties of citrus fruits that helped in increasing income as well as living standard of farmers, Deputy Director of CoE Kota Rashid Khan told PTI here.
In view of its outstanding performance, the Indian government deputed CoE Kota as cluster head of CoE for Citrus under the Indo-Israel Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) in the country and an order in this regard from the director (MIDH) was received in June this year, he added.
Now Kota’s Centre of Excellence for Citrus will lead CoE for Citrus at Akola in Maharashtra, CoE for Citrus Fruit at Lunglei, Mizoram, at Amarpur, Tripura, at Hoshiyarpur, Punjab, Chhindwara, M.P., Sidhpur, Himachal Pradesh, Sirsa, Haryana and at Udaywalla, Jammu, Khan said.
Further, he said citrus cultivation in districts, including Jhalawar and Kota, exports the produce to Bangladesh, Bhutan and other neighbouring countries.
According to the agriculture officer of CoE Kota, Hemant Yadav, a grafted plant of citrus varieties is offered at the government rate of Rs 60 per plant to the farmers.
A citrus fruit cultivator in Mathania village in Jodhpur, Harpreet Singh, started its cultivation with 300 plants from the centre five years ago and now reap handsome harvest.
Ashish Bairagi, a 32-year-old farmer from Bundi district, currently harvests around 300 plants of the ‘Nagpuri Santra’ variety procured from the centre.
“I was encouraged for citrus fruit cultivation in a demonstration camp, organised under Rajasthan Water Sector Livelihood Improvement Project (RWSLIP) in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) around 3 years ago,” Bairagi said. PTI CORR SHW HVA SHW
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