Himachal to Adopt Horticulture Development Model of Italy and Austria

To accelerate the development of the horticulture sector, Italy and Austria’s model of horticulture development will be adopted in Himachal. The Horticulture Development Project, being run with the financial assistance of Rs 1134 crore from the World Bank, will be made more effective. After taking training abroad for ten days, Agriculture Secretary of Horticulture Department Rakesh Kanwar, Director RK Paruthi, Himachal Marketing Board Managing Director Naresh Thakur and two officers of Horticulture Department returned.

These officers have studied abroad in horticulture, marketing and legislation. Now on returning to Himachal, this team will prepare and submit a detailed report to the state government. In this report, recommendations will be made keeping in mind the interests of the horticulturists, so that along with the development of the horticulture sector, the problem of crop marketing is removed. Officials say that in Italy and Austria, up to ninety percent of the horticulture sector produces apples and grapes.

Apple is produced in abundance in Himachal. New varieties are developed by continuously researching apples abroad. Continuous work is being done on projects of shorter and longer duration. Short duration projects are being run for the gardeners. Mutual cooperation in horticulture development is to be recommended from these countries.