Bhubaneswar, May 19: Go fruitarian with a vengeance at the first-ever state-level fruit festival that began here today. More than 24 popular varieties of fruit feature at the exhibition that is being held on Exhibition Ground.
Among others, the two-day festival features 87 mango, two litchi, seven banana and 12 citrus fruit varieties. A total of 75 kiosks is displaying horticulture products.
To encourage more people to eat fruit, a banana-eating competition will be held tomorrow at 3.30pm. If you want to take part, register for it between 10am and 2pm.
The festival is coinciding with the festival of Savitri Brata tomorrow when fruits will be in focus.
Inaugurating the festival, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said post-harvest horticultural products from Odisha were doing brisk business in metros and fruit-based juices, pulps, pickles and chutneys were becoming very popular. With better packaging, marketing and good returns, the horticultural sector can flourish well.
The directorate of horticulture has been organising an annual mango festival at the department’s farm near Nayapalli. But, this year, the venue has been moved to Exhibition Ground and other fruits have been included, so that more people can take part sand other horticultural produces be promoted.
Principal secretary, agriculture, Rangalal Jamuda said that of 64 lakh hectares of cultivable land in Odisha, 25 lakh is in the upland category, which is more suitable for horticulture. More than 200 watershed projects had received a nod from the Centre and more than 10 lakh hectares would soon be used for horticulture, he said.
Jamuda said plans were afoot to add eight lakh deep bore wells to the two lakh that were already being used for horticulture. The National Horticulture Mission had covered all the 30 districts of Odisha. Earlier, only 24 districts had been covered by the mission. Growing flowers, fruits and vegetables on highland soil with water harvesting could also help recharge the groundwater table.
Addressing his department’s officials, the agriculture secretary later admitted that there was a lot of pressure on the officials as many of them at the block level were looking after more than one block. “Very soon, we will r recruit more officials at the block level to bridge the gap,” he said.
Director, horticulture, S.K. Chadha said farmers should use water judiciously.
He said small farmers should take advantage of a subsidy scheme under the National Horticulture Mission to use drip and sprinkler irrigation systems and get an 80 per cent cut in the expense.
Dillip Kumar Dora from the department of postharvest management, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, said available technology should be used to preserve horticulture-based farm products so that unemployed youths can earn a substantial amount while buying products at a low price during peak harvesting season.
The Odisha Horticulture Development Society released its first journal on horticulture on the occasion and several books and booklets on the subject were also unveiled.
Local MP Prasanna Patsani, MLAs Bhagirathi Badajena, Ashok Panda and Bijay Mohanty also spoke on the occasion.
