Report of Joint Inspeciton Team Under the Leadership of Dr
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REPORT OF JOINT INSPECTION TEAM WHICH VISITED BIHAR DATE OF VISIT: 13-16 MARCH, 2012 NATIONAL HORTICULTURE MISSION MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & COOPERATION KRISHI BHAVAN, NEW DELHI 2 Sl.No. Topic Page No. 1 Summary of Observations and Recommendations 2 2 Patna District 5 3 Nalanda District 9 4 Vaishali District 16 5. Samastipur District 21 3 REPORT OF JOINT INSPECITON TEAM UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF DR. JOSE C. SAMUEL, CHIEF CONSULTANT (NHM) WHICH VISITED BIHAR DURING 13-16 MARCH, 2012 The Joint Inspection Team (JIT) comprising of the following Members visited Bihar during 13-16 March, 2012 to review the progress under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI) and Vegetable Initiative for Urban Clusters (VIUC) in the State. Members of JIT 1. Dr. Jose C. Samuel, Chief Consultant (NHM), 2. Dr. P.K. Ray, Professor (Hort.), RAU, Pusa, Samastipur, 3. Shri Mohit Dutt, Project Officer, NCPAH The JIT covered the district of Patna, Nalanda, Vaishali and Samastipur. Activities which were visited in different districts are as follows: NHM: Nursery, Vegetable seed production, Tissue culture lab, Area expansion of mango, litchi, Protected cultivation, Front Line Demonstration, Vermi compost units, Mushroom Spawn Production unit, Mushroom production, Onion Storage and Cold Storage units NMMI: Drip irrigation of litchi and mango. VIUC: Area expansion, protected cultivation, organic farming, onion storage structures, formation of FIGs The Team interacted with Secretary Agriculture & Mission Director, Government of Bihar on 13th of March before proceeding to the Districts. Thereafter, the Team appraised the Secretary Agriculture about the observations and recommendations of the Team on 16th March, 2012. 4 Summary of Observations & Recommendations: General: There has been significant improvement in the adoption of activities such as protected cultivation, micro irrigation, organic farming and mushroom cultivation, which is a welcome sign. This has been possible due to special thrust given by the State Government along with additional financial support to the extent of 40% over and above the normal assistance under NHM and NMMI Schemes. Now farmers are able to get subsidy assistance to the tune of 90% for the above mentioned activities. There is an overwhelming response for adoption of organic farming, mushroom production and protected cultivation in the districts visited, which needs to be supported with additional allocation of funds. In tune with the tempo of development, the Districts need to be equipped with sufficient trained manpower and infrastructure facilities to provide necessary extension support to the farmers. The concept of formation of Farmer Interest Groups (FIG) has been well received in Patna, Nalanda and Vaishali districts, which were visited by the JIT. The record yield of 72.9 MT/ha obtained in potato under organic farming in Nalanda district has been much in limelight as the current world record of 53.5 MT/ha has been broken by the farmers of Darveshpura village in the district. The efforts being made under the Schemes need to be documented and well publicised. Moreover, proper display boards with logos need to be displayed at the project sites for generating awareness among the farmers. NHM Major focus under NHM has been on area expansion and construction of vermi compost units. 5 For area expansion activities, planting material is being supplied from Departmental nurseries in collaboration with RAU, Samastipur and BAU, Sabour along with associated KVKs. The nurseries visited needed better upkeep and maintenance along with display of boards indicating the varieties being multiplied. FLD on floriculture need to be made fully operational. The green house structures installed were presently lying vacant for want of planting material for gerbera. The demonstrations should include latest technologies for which scientific staff from the SAUs need to be involved. The Model Floriculture Centre being developed at Bagan Bigah, Nalanda should be developed on a commercial scale to produce planting material as well as flowers. Efforts being made by Shri Manish Kumar, in protected cultivation of capsicum in naturally ventilated green house at Sampatchak, Patna District is worth appreciation. Farmers and field staff need to be imparted training on protected cultivation, including production technologies in GH cultivation. The PHM infrastructure being developed include onion storage structures and cold storage units. For onion storage, assistance available to a beneficiary is to the tune of Rs.90,000/- per unit, which includes 50% subsidy under NHM and another 40% by the State Government. One onion storage unit developed at Sodhi, Nalanda district is presently storing potatoes. The cold storage units which were visited in Vaishali and Samastipur districts were established during the year 2008-09. However, subsidy was released only recently and in respect of one unit in Samastipur, the subsidy was released in March, 2012. The proprietors of these units mentioned that initially they had applied for availing assistance from National Horticulture Board (NHB), which was, however, returned back with the directions to avail assistance under NHM. During the time of visit, loading of potatoes was in full swing in most of the cold storage units. 6 The cold storage Proprietor at Samastipur mentioned that before setting up a cold storage unit, they have to first seek permission form the Horticulture Department, State Pollution Control Board, get clearance from Weights & Measures, Machinery and State Electricity Board by paying fees ranging upto Rs.15,000/-. After setting up the unit, license has to be obtained from the State Horticulture Department under the Bihar State Cold Storage Business Regulations Act, 1998 on payment of a registration fee of Rs.10,000/, which is to be renewed on an annual basis on payment of same amount of fees each year. The procedure needs to be simplified. The efforts made by M/s Madhu Patel in establishing a spawn production unit for mushroom at Nalanda is worth appreciation, which has transformed the economic condition of many, particularly women folk in the district. The SHM has been posting the monthly progress report on NHM web site since 2005-06. There was a discrepancy to the tune of Rs.27 crore in posting the progress for the year 2006-07, which has been got rectified on the web site. There is need to monitor the posting of data on a regular basis. The status of project based proposals need to be posted on the web site, which is pending. The work flow based Management Information System (MIS) for NHM need to be operationalised at each of the Districts. NMMI The installation of drip and sprinkler irrigations systems needs to be supported with training of field functionaries as well as farmers about running & maintenance of the system, crop water requirement & irrigation scheduling. It need to be ensured that the drip system is installed as per the required specifications. The system should have BIS marking. It was observed that the drip irrigation system installed in a green house in Samastipur district did not have any BIS marking. Nor did the laterals bear the markings of the manufacturer,viz Netafim Irrigation. 7 VIUC The farmers have shown keen interest in adopting organic farming for cultivation of vegetables. In Nalanda District, some of the farmers have obtained C 2 level certification through Eco Cert. While Base Line Survey work has been completed, work on formation of FIG and FPO is under progress through Indian Grameen Services along with BASICS, Patna for undertaking the work. A sum of Rs.100/- per farmer is being collected from each member of FIG for registration purpose. However, so far no registration has taken place. In Nalanda, farmer groups who were registered with ATMA have been involved. Market tie up with aggregator is yet to take place. The Field staff were not fully clear about the concept of formation of FIG and FPO, which need to be sorted out by organising training programmes and workshops. Presently, there is no mechanism to know the details of market arrival and price of vegetables, as none of the markets in Bihar are reporting data on the Agmarknet. Necessary arrangements need to be made to arrange posting of data on market arrival and price of vegetables and other horticulture commodities on Agmarknet. Patna District The details of area, production and productivity of main horticultural crops in the district is given in Table 1. 8 Table 1: Area, Production and Productivity of horticultural crops in Patna District a) Fruits (Area in ha., Production in MT, Productivity in MT/ha) S. Name of 2005-06 2010-11 % (+) % (+) or (-) No. Commodity Area Prod. Pvty Area Prod. Pvty or (-) in in Area Production 1 Mango 3703 28883 7.80 3944 36285 9.20 6.51 25.63 2 Guava 1019 7133 7.00 1088 8813 8.10 6.77 23.55 3 Lemon 537 3490 6.50 572 4347 7.60 6.52 24.56 4 Banana 539 16709 31.00 598 28226 47.20 10.95 68.93 5 Aonla 0 0 0.00 28 258 9.21 6 Others 1789 14869 8.31 1532 15343 10.02 -14.37 3.19 Total 7587 71084 9.37 7762 93272 12.02 2.31 31.21 b) Vegetables S. Name of 2005-06 2010-11 % (+) % (+) or No. District or (-) in (-) in Area Prod. Pvty Area Prod. Pvty Area Production 1. Patna * 22701 353692 15.58 40002 708728 17.72 76.21 100.38 * Onion, potato, tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal and okra constitute about 80% of production c) Flower (Area in ha., Production of loose flowers in MT, Production of cut flowers in lakh spikes, Productivity in MT/ha) S. Name of 2005-06 2010-11 % (+) or % (+) or No. Commodity (-) in (-) in Area Prod. Pvty Area Prod. Pvty Area Production A. Cut Flower 1 Rose 1.40 1.68 1.20 4.30 6.02 1.40 207.14 258.33 2 Gladiolus 0.80 1.60 2.00 7.55 15.1 2.00 843.75 843.75 Total 2.2 3.28 1.49 11.85 21.12 1.78 438.64 543.90 B.