Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia visits the horticulture centre at Deras on Tuesday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 4: Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who arrived here today on a one-day visit, praised the state government’s efforts in the field of agriculture.

Before leaving for Cuttack, he visited an Udyan Fresh outlet and the recently inaugurated Centre of Excellence on Horticulture near Deras on the city outskirts.

“There is a huge difference between price of crops sold by farmers and the price at which consumers buy due to involvement of middlemen. More such outlets should be opened in Odisha and other states. These kiosks are beneficial for consumers as well as farmers, because they eliminate middlemen,” said Ahluwalia.

Udyan Fresh, an initiative of the directorate of horticulture that aims to sell vegetables to the consumers at an affordable price by eliminating the middlemen in supply chain, started catering to the consumers in 2012. At present, 15 such outlets are in operation in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. All these outlets are being set up in the public-private partnership mode.

A directorate official said they had set a target to set up a total 40 such outlets in Bhubaneswar. “We have already got land to set up such outlets in Rourkela, Sambalpur and Berhampur,” said director of horticulture Sanjeev Kumar Chaddha.

Ahluwalia also expressed his satisfaction over the infrastructure of the Centre of Excellence on Horticulture, which was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday. The centre was built over 25 acres with assistance from the Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

The official said they would shortly start training programmes for farmers in the centre.

“We would demonstrate the farmers various technologies that can be applied for cultivation of various crops. Similarly, the farmers should also know the benefits of cultivation in net houses,” said Chaddha.

There centre has five poly-greenhouses, 24 poly-tunnel houses and seven net houses for production of various high-yielding varieties of vegetables and flowers. The protected structures have special facilities to reduce temperature up to 6°C to 7°C for off-season vegetable cultivation. Similarly, several irrigation facilities such as drip, micro and boom have also been installed according to the requirement for various crops.