Boost to Protected Cultivation planned

Visakhapatnam: Protected Cultivation, a joint venture of State and Central governments, has been yielding good results in the State. The farmers who are cultivating various commercial crops under Protected Cultivation are getting good returns. With the successful inputs, AP Horticulture Department has decided to promote the Protected Cultivation in a big way across the State.

The major crops that are being cultivated under the Protected cultivation are capsicum, English cucumber, Hybrid tomato and gerbera, carnation and rose flowers. Presently, the crops are being cultivated at an extent of 1,000 acres in some selected areas in the State and during the 2018-19, the farmers registered returns of Rs 10 lakh approximately per acre.

The Protected Cultivation is one of the leading technologies to meet the requirement of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Production of crops under protected conditions has great potential in augmenting production and quality of vegetables, flowers and some fruit crops in main and off season.

The Horticulture department is promoting the new cultivation methods and also providing all kinds of support to the farmers. The government is financially assisting for construction of ripening chambers with functional infrastructure and cold storages to protect value addition to the production, said Deputy Director (fruits) AP Horticulture Department PHanumantha Rao.

Production of crops under protected conditions has great potential in augmenting production and quality of vegetables, flowers and some fruit crops in main and off season under varied climatic conditions. The damages to the crops are very less even in the floods, drought and cyclones. The quality of the production is excellent and has big potentialin the domestic and international markets, the Deputy Director explained.