February 9, 2015
Bengal surging ahead in Horticulture
Actions speak louder than rhetoric. Date regarding horticulture clearly show that this sector has registered immense growth under Trinamool. Here is a comparison of parameters during the last 3 years of the CPM rule ( 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) and the first 3 years of Trinamool’s governance ( 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14):
Poly House and Shed Net House:
Poly Houses and Shed Net Houses are built for climate controlled ventilated areas which are essential for horticulture. Poly house concept emerged to undertake adverse environmental conditions such as excess rainfall, temperature, cold conditions, airflow etc. India and Holland both have more or less the same area under flower cultivation, but Holland amounts to 70% of flower export and India about 1% in the global market. The difference is due to use of Poly houses and Shed net houses and use of advanced technology.
In terms of new area covered under Poly house technology and Shed net house, the performance of Trinamool Congress is much higher than the Left rule. 58,200 meters of Poly house are constructed in the last 3 years as against 5520 meters of Left regime. The success of construction of Shed net house is even more. In comparison to just 448 sq meters in the Left rule, 3,21,180 sq mts have been constructed in the last 3 years.
The average numbers of Poly houses build per year in the last 3 years are 19,400 as compared to just 1840 in the last 3 years of Left rule. The annual average numbers of Shed net houses build is 7,060 under Trinamool’s governance.
Area added:
In the last 3 years, 15,611 hectares of land are added for fruit cultivation and 3631 hectares for flower cultivation.
Some significant developments:
- West Bengal Government has taken up initiatives of horticulture through NREGA. It is worth mentioning that Bankura has received the prestigious “District Award for Effective Initiatives under MGNREGA Administration.”
- 384 skill development camps have been organised.
- The government has passed the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Bill 2014. This bill will promote formation of new markets where farmers can directly sell the product to the end users, curb the middlemen menace, thus the interest of both the farmers and the customers will be taken care of. Government will regulate these markets.
- More than 2800 farmers related with horticulture have been assisted with power tillers, tractors, power pumps and other automated machines.
- Government assisted Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme has been implemented. More than 8000 farmers (Kharif season) and 4000 ( Rabi season) has benefited from this.
