Srinagar: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Production Department (APD), Atal Dulloo today chaired first meeting of the UT level monitoring committee to review the progress regarding Cluster Development Programme being implemented in district Shopian-Apple Cluster.
The meeting was attended by the Managing Director, J&K Horticulture Produce, Marketing and Processing Corporation (JKHPMC), Director Horticulture Kashmir, Director Horticulture Planning & Marketing, representative of National Horticulture Board and other concerned.
The meeting was informed that Shopian has been identified as ‘Apple Cluster’ in UT of J&K and JKHPMC has been designated as cluster Development Agency (CDA) for implementation of the Cluster Development Programme (CDP) of MoA&FW, GoI in the Apple Cluster-District Shopian.
The ACS was informed that in Shopian, an area of 26,237 Ha of land is under Horticulture Plantation, out of which 21,707 Ha of land is under ‘Apple’ crop. It was given out that the total fruit crop production is 2,53,702 MT, of which 2,37,430 MT is of ‘Apple’ production and about 60,000 farmers are associated with cultivation of apple crop in nine major blocks in Shopian and about 70 percent of the productions is recorded from five major blocks.
ACS was informed that the programme is to be implemented in a span of four years with the broad objective of making Shopian apple globally competitive by supporting the interventions at three major verticals which include: Pre-production & Production, Post-harvest Management and Value Addition & Logistics, Marketing & Branding.
In this regard, the meeting was informed that the Cluster Development Agency has established a cluster development cell (CDC) with a team of officers for the smooth implementation of the programme while as the financial assistance and overall implementation of the programme is to be provided by NHB.
It was further given out that the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), has nominated the Programme Management Unit (PMU) M/s Grant Thorton for providing technical assistance to NHB and CDA for the effective implementation of the cluster development programme.