Exhort farmers to take up horticulture farming

Tirupati: District Collector Dr N Bharat Gupta has directed the officials to encourage farmers towards horticulture crops and place the district at top place in the State. He visited Green Orbit Farm at Gandrajupalli near Gangavaram mandal on Tuesday being run by a farmer T Sreenivasulu Naidu.

Farming community should think of horticulture cultivation as they can get more yield with less water. The Collector said that farmers have been fetching more income by growing flowers and vegetables in poly houses in 100 acres.

With effective planning and in small extent, they have been cultivating capsicum, cherry, tomato, cauliflower, cabbage and several green leaves and getting good yields. These crops have huge demand nationally as well as internationally, he said. Sreenivasulu informed the Collector that he has been harvesting vegetable and fruit crops at two poly houses in five acres extent and was making use of the rainwater efficiently. Also, he has been employing 50 persons.

Dr Bharat Gupta replied that if farmers could be able to have crops for 365 days, agriculture also will be an industry. Horticulture Deputy Director Dharmaja has said that government will provide up to Rs 80 lakh subsidy in the total expenditure for setting up poly houses and Integrated Post Harvest Management (IPHM) units. Trainee Collector Prudhvi Tej and other officials Ramana Rao, Dasaratha Rami Reddy and Vidya Sankar were also present.