Gujarat Dragon Fruit Farming Scheme 2022

 Gujarat Dragon Fruit Farming Scheme 2022

The Gujarat government renamed dragon fruit' Kamalam'( after the Sanskrit term for lotus) in January 2021 because the fruit allegedly appeared a lotus. The conclusion advanced after Kutch farmers indicated to the state government that the dragon fruit be renamed Kamalam. 

In a healthy push for horticultural growers palming to expand into dragon fruit( or kamalam as it's known in Gujarat) product, the Gujarat government disclosed a financial helping scheme on Friday with a total financing of worth to Rs 10 crore.

 

Farmers from the common community will be eligible for financial backing of up to Rs 3 lakh per hectare under the scheme, while agriculturists from scheduled castes or scheduled tribes will be eligible for financial backing of worth to Rs4.5 lakh per hectare. 

 Dragon fruit, also grasped as pitahaya or strawberry pear in distinct region of the world, is high in nutritive value and sells for Rs 100- 150 per piece in retail markets in Gujarat cities. Horticulture farmers in the Kutch section had rotated to dragon fruit cultivation and had fabricated several success narratives. P M Vaghasiya, Director of Horticulture for the Government of Gujarat, expressed that the fruit, which was renamed Kamalam in 2021, was cropped in the Kutch and Surendranagar districts of the state. 

" The scheme is carried to encourage more agriculturists to exploit into Kamalam fruit culture; we anticipate that this scheme will superlatively develop the area under Kamalam fruit cultivation from around 300 hectares at present-day," as per Vaghasiya. 

In extension, the state government has proffered financial support for general horticulture development. Farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations or companies, and enrolled trusts would admit financial support of worth to Rs 50 lakh for on- field enhancements such as farm automation, horticulture framework, irrigation, plastic cover-up, and so on. This totals Rs6.5 crore in provisioning. 

" We hope that by incentivizing the cultivation of kamalam- dragon fruit, we can reduce the fruit's dependency on from foreign. Farmers will profit from the original financial boost by tapping into export shots" Raghavji Patel, Gujarat's agriculture minister, expressed He also stated that good growers will take help directly in their bank accounts via the DBT. 

Farmers concerned in dragon fruit production have seen emphatic financial changeovers. As a consequence, the State government figured to follow Prime Minister Modi's call to dual farmers' income by incentivizing dragon fruit cultivation in the state. Dragon fruit is cropped in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in extension to Gujarat.