Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to perform ground breaking ceremony of Orange Unnati project at Hivarkhed in Morshi Taluk , District Amravati, on 29 December, 2016 at 1.00 pm
Amravati, 28 December 2016 (Reporter):- Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis will perform ground breaking ceremony on December 29 of "Jain Farm Fresh - Hindustan Coca-Cola Orange Unnati Project" which is set to begin a new era for orange farmers in Vidarbha. Jain Farm Fresh Foods Ltd. a, subsidiary of Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd and Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. along with the Govt. of Maharashtra, as a part of Central Government's 'Make in India' initiative, are setting up this project. Pandurang Fundkar, Agriculture Ministerof Maharashtra will preside over the ceremony at Hivarkhed in Morshi Taluk of Amravati district Girish Mahajan Maharashtra Water Resources Minister will also be present on the occasion as the special invitee. The ceremony would take place at 1 p.m.
Along with them, Pravin Pote, Guardian Minister of Amravati, Dr Ranjit Patil, State Minister for Home, MP Ramdas Tadas, MP Anandrao Adasul, Mr J P Gupta, Divisional Commissioner, Amravati and Anil Jain, MD &Vice-chairman, Jain Irrigation, will also be present on the occasion. MLA Dr Anil Bonde and Dr. Mrs Vasudha Bonde, MLA Prof Shrikant Deshpande, MLA Dr Sunil Deshmukh, MLA Prof. Virendra Jagtap, MLA Omprakash alias Bachchu Kadu, MLA Ad. Smt. Yashomati Thakur, MLA Ravikumar Rana, MLA Prabhudas Bhilavekar, MLA Ramesh Bundele will be other dignitaries who will also attend the ceremony.
Orange grower farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra were suffering from several problems like absence of precision farming and processing of present variety of oranges. As there was not much demand abroad and in India for the processed value added products of traditional oranges, no industrialist paid any attention to them. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadanvis took a lead in this connection told Jain Irrigation to think of a project to give push to oranges which can be processed easily with Jain Irrigation's high agricultural technology. He told us to help orange farmers by setting up horticultural park and training centre etc.
Jain Irrigation also made R&D in its project on Jain Sweet Oranges at the global level since last 7 years. It stressed on the citrus class of fruits from Brazil as they can be processed very easily. Then Jain Irrigation was successful and came up with the Sweet Orange suitable to Indian soil and climate and can be easily processed. After developing this project under "Make in India,"Jain Irrigation also decided to give a push to increase in farmers financial progress in Vidarbha under the guidance of Jain Irrigation founder Chairman late Bhavarlal Jain. It was also possible to achieve more value addition to the Jain Sweet Oranges. This variety can also be grown in Vidarbha. Agricultural extension activities would be carried out to make precision water management and farmers should get more output of this fruit. Young farmers from Vidarbha would also learn high technology in agriculture through this project.
In the dense cultivation technology, farmers will grow 333 sweet oranges per acre. This number is thrice the number of oranges plants in traditional cultivation. In the traditional farming of oranges, farmers had to wait for 5 years to get first harvest of fruits while in new method of cultivation, growers have to wait for only 3 years to get first harvest of Jain Sweet Oranges. Another special thing is traditional orange farmers obtain 4 to 5 Metric Tons of fruits per acre. Compared to that, high density cultivation of sweet oranges, growers can get 10 to 12 Metric Tons output of fruits per acre. Due to high technology, there is an increase of three times in the production of Sweet Oranges.
Highlights of the Project
* Modern nursery of citrus class plants would be set up.
* A demonstration farm for farmers to see for themselves.
* Sweet Orange processing plant to be set up in the project area itself.
* Special provision for agricultural education extension.
* Orange Unnati project to benefit nearly 50000 farmers.
* Scientists and agricultural experts to guide farmers for Jain Sweet Oranges.
* 10000 acre land would be brought under orange cultivation in the next 10 years.
* A modern vehicle to be provided for free training of farmers.
* Training 50,000 farmers on Jain GAP standard.
* Assured buy-back of Jain Sweet Oranges grown by farmers.