By IANS
Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Tuesday ordered the setting up of five citrus estates this year, bringing 18,000 acres in 400 villages under citrus cultivation.
The estates will be set up in the citrus growing area of Tahliwala Jattan, Abohar, Badal, Hariana and Hoshiarpur. A Punjab government spokesman termed the move as the most ambitious diversification programme of the state government in the horticulture sector undertaken in a single year.
Badal told a meeting of officers and horticulturists here that under his government's 'mission horticulture' plan, incentives will be given to farmers to shift to non-conventional farming like citrus fruit growing.
Incentives will include subsidies of up to 70 percent on drip irrigation installed by farmers who diversify from the regular wheat-rice growing cycle to other forms of farming.
The new citrus estates will have scientific centres, disease preventive centres, citrus nurseries and other facilities. The estates will also have imported farm implements like orange pickers, pruning saw and ladders.
Badal sanctioned Rs.150 million for purchasing the equipment and said the citrus estates will also have research and development laboratories.
The government will help growers in marketing Kinnow, a citrus fruit, he said, adding that cold storages will be set up for citrus fruits.