NEW DELHI, 22 September 2020: As per Third Advance Estimates 2019-20, India's orange output has been pegged at 63.97 lakh tonnes from the total land under Orange (Mandarin Orange/Kinnow) of 4.79 Lakh Hectare.

Major states involved in Orange production are Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana, Indian agriculture minister, Narendra Singh Tomar informed the Loksabha recently.

There is no declining trend in Orange production in the country, as may be seen in the table below:-

Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme is being implemented w.e.f. 2014-15, for holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew and cocoa. All States and UTs are covered under MIDH.

The Mission envisages production and productivity improvement of horticulture crops including fruits and vegetables through various interventions. Under MIDH, assistance is provided for activities such as production of planting material, vegetable seed production, coverage of area with improved cultivars, rejuvenation of senile orchards, protected cultivation, creation of water resources, adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Nutrient Management (INM), organic farming, including insitu generation of organic inputs are taken up for development of fruits and vegetables. Capacity buildings of farmers and technicians are also provided for adopting improved technologies.

Under the Mission, financial assistance is also provided for taking up various activities related to development of horticulture including post-harvest management.

For the development of post-harvest management including establishment of Pack house, Pre-cooling unit, Cold Storage, Mobile Pre-cooling unit, Cold Room (Staging), Primary/Mobile/Minimal Processing unit, Ripening Chamber, evaporative/low energy cool chamber, low cost preservation unit, low cost onion storage structure, Pusa Zero Energy Cool Chamber, subsidy @ 35 percent (for general areas) and 50 percent (for hilly and tribal areas) of capital cost of the project is available for both public and private sector enterprises.

ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur has reported that it has so far trained as many as 42634 citrus growers and 2449 officials on countrywide basis under various extension/Transfer of Technology based programmes.

During last five years, under the Technology Mission (MM-I) for North Eastern and Himalayan (NEH) region, Centre organized a total of 20 trainings programmes (5- On Campus and 15 Off Campus) covering 8 States of north- eastern region where concerned State Government officers and field functionaries were trained on ‘Production of disease free planting material’ and ‘Citrus Rejuvenation’.

ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur has reported that since 2003, it has produced 7.00 Lakh planting materials of citrus and distributed to 3000 citrus growers and 16 Citrus growing State Governments to develop a healthy mother stock.

Image credit: gktoday.in