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| J&K switches over to alternative fruit packaging | | Zargar for making MIS more transparent and farm-friendly | | EARLY TIMES REPORTER
Srinagar, August 14 :
In a significant decision, government today decided to introduce alternate packaging material to improve grading of fruits being exported from the state. About 4 lakh innovative plastic boxes made by the Reliance Industries Limited and 2.5 lakh cardboard cartons are being procured for onward distribution to the fruit growers this year for which National Horticulture Board would also provide assistance to the state government.
This was revealed at a high level meeting held here today to discuss measures for making Market Intervention Scheme more effective and farm-friendly.
The Minister for Agriculture and cooperatives Mr. Abdul Aziz Zargar presided.
The Principal Secretary Agricultural Production Mr. S S Sahini, Secretary Agriculture Mr. K B Jandial, Director Horticulture, Planning and Marketing Mr. Showkat Ahmad Zargar, Director Command Area Mr. G H Shah and concerned officers were also present.
It was stated that the State Level Steering Committee on Technology Mission Programme has already approved procurement of about 10 lakh non-wooden boxes to introduce innovate alternate packaging in the state. Alternate packaging would replace traditional wooden boxes in a phased manner and also help in making horticulture produce more presentable and market competitive in the open market.
The meeting discussed various measures to check re-cycling of C-grade fruits procured under MIS in the market.
The Minister called for strict monitoring of the MIS with focus on making the scheme more transparent. He said punitive action would be taken against all those employees and agencies indulging in any kind of mismanagement and misappropriation during implementation of scheme. He directed the concerned officers to involve all small and major fruit processing units to ensure optimum utilization of C-grade fruit which is estimated to be around 3 lakh metric tones at present. For this purpose, he said, offers should also be thrown open to the buyers from outside the state.
The Minister said that the government would consider enhancing the rate of C-grade fruits from Rs. 4 per kilogram to R. 5 per kilogram for the current year. He also emphasized for promotion of fruit processing industry in a big way for which raw material is abundantly available locally. Government would provide all logistic support to the entrepreneurs and investors for the purpose, Mr. Zargar added.
Speaking on the occasion, the Principal Secretary Agricultural Production urged for enhancing the processing capacity in the fruit processing unit at Doabgah, Sopore run by the Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce and Marketing Corporation. He also suggested some measures to make the MIS sustainable. |
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