Development of High Density Nurseries and Orchards in J&K

High Density Plantation

The Administrative Council (AC) under the chairmanship of the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor, Shri Manoj Sinha approved the implementation of the high density plantation nurseries scheme for private entrepreneurs and start-ups in the horticulture sector. The new scheme in line with the Atmanirbar Bharat Abhiyan, will provide 50% subsidy through direct benefit transfer to entrepreneurs for establishing high-density plantation nurseries. The farmer-centric scheme will be implemented for apples, walnut, almond, cherry, litchi, and olive among others. to locally developed rootstocks. It will substantially reduce the cost of obtaining planting material by doing away with the need of keeping the imported plants in quarantine for 2 years before their transplantation, besides reducing the mortality rate and import cost. Get complete information by downloading the pdf file from below given link. Interested to know more about post harvest urea application check here

Salient features

• Assistance to the tune of 50% of the cost of plating material will he given directly to the farmers through DBT mode
• The per plant cost of identified variety shall be fixed by a Price Determination Committee having members drawn from National Horticulture Board (NHB), Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH), Department of Horticulture and experts from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST). Director Horticulture, Kashmir will be convener of the Committee.
• 50% assistance to he provided directly to the growers through DBT and will be calculated on the basis of the prices fixed by Price Determination Committee on  actual  costs  irrespective  of  the transaction costs between the Nursey growers and the farmers.
• An online portal inclusive of Monitoring Information System (MIS) shall be put in place for registration of both eligible nursery growers and farmers for the smooth implementation of the scheme. All the details including demand of identified plants from farmers and availability with nursery growers will be uploaded on portal.
• Once the plant of identified variety will he purchased by Farmers directly from authorized nursery growers, the 50% cost of planting material will be reimbursed after physical verification of sale records of the nursery owner and reconciliation with the purchase receipt by the grower and actual plantation on the ground verified by the concerned Horticulture Development Officer.
• Only those farmers/growers will be eligible for the 50% assistance under the Scheme who will purchase the planting material from authorized nursery holders registered with NRO office, Jammu/Srinagar having the eligibility criteria.

Objective of the High Density Plantation Scheme

• It will give a boost to employment opportunities by creating more than 0.6 million man-days jobs per year.
• It will make the sector self-reliant in terms of inputs required for high-density plantations.
• It will go a long way in enhancing the quality and quantity or horticulture produce for doubling the farmer’s income
• High density elite root-stocks/fruit plants will be available locally which in turn will help in making horticulture hugely profitable through the production of superior, high-quality fruits with an increasing yield per hectare.
• Production of insect and pest resistance varieties- invariably saving the expenditure on disease and pest control.
• It will substantially reduce the cost of obtaining planting material by doing away with the need of keeping the imported plants In quarantine for 2 years before their transplantation .
• It will reduce the mortality rate which is otherwise higher in case of imported   rootstocks.

Eligibility Criteria for High Density Nurseries

• The prospective High Density Plantation Nursery grower can obtain the identified rootstock In two ways:
  1. Import from outside the country
  2. Authentic rootstock from Department of Horticulture.

1. In case of import from outside the country

• The intended nursery grower shall import the identified rootstock from reputed nurseries.
• Rootstock must carry virus free, Phytosanitary and true to type certificates, release order from Customs Department and release order from plant protection and quarantine authority.
• The  nursery  grower  shall  provide  the  copies  of  Post  Entry Quarantine (PEQ) 18& 19 to NRO along with copy of import permit.
• To adhere to IPRS norms, the material shall essentially carry permission to grow, multiply and sell as most of the varieties are patented.
• The minimum area available with prospective nursery grower should be 5 kanals. The land should be in the name of prospective entrepreneur or he must have lease hold rights for a period not less than 05 years.
• The entrepreneur must furnish a certificate to the effect that he shall establish a progeny orchard and shall grow the varieties, cultivars specified by SKUAST/Department
• The entrepreneur shall observe all the post entry quarantine measures and shall grow the plant material under the guidance of Department of Horticulture.
• Only those varieties shall be imported/grown by  the prospective nursery entrepreneur. which will be notified by Directorate of Horticulture Jammu/Kashmir  in  consultation  with  SKUAST Jammu/ Kashmir and CITH.
• The plant material shall be under observation for PEQ measures under the Designated Inspection Authority (DIA) and once the material is released by the Competent Authority, the required certificate shall be provided to the NRO.
• The production of the planting material/multiplication of rootstock shall strictly be undertaken by the Nursery grower under the close supervision of NRO. The entrepreneur shall issue the tags for the plants produced by the nursery after framing of the availability statement for each nursery wherein details of variety wise plants produced must be mentioned.

2. In case of rootstock supplied by Horticulture Department

• Prospective Entrepreneur shall apply at Directorate of Horticulture, Jammu/Kashmir.
• The application so received shall be scrutinized by a Committee of Experts lo be notified by the Government as per the mechanism/criteria.
• The minimum score (as per the criteria in the above matrix) should be 50 and the selected nursery grower shall essentially furnish a DPR, Scheme of production, timeline and all other details. On the basis of this DPR, the nursery shall be registered with all the details clearly mentioned in the registration certificate like rootstock, plant to be produced, timeline etc.
• As per the availability with the Department of Horticulture, the rootstock, in a calendar year, shall be distributed on pro rata basis among 10 prospective High Density nursery growers on the basis of first 10 highest scores, as per mechanism.

Source: Directorate of Horticulture, Kashmir