Author: Virendra Pandit
Publication: The Hindu Business Line
Date: May 26, 2011
URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2010/05/27/stories/2010052752752100.htm
Gujarat's business acumen and entrepreneurial
zest is passé; the State's leap-frogging with 11 per cent agricultural
growth, praised by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) last year, is old hat too.
What is new is this: Gujarat may now export
more 'kesar', the famous mango variety of the State, to West Asia than Maharashtra
sells alphonso; the State has entered Goa market with cashew nut; and an Ahmedabad-based
part-time floriculturist sells Dutch roses worth Rs 3 lakh a month in the
city itself!
Clearly, the semi-arid State is witnessing
a revolution in floriculture and horticulture.
Water management
"Laments that scarce rains damage prospects
of good crop are meaningless in Gujarat which has mastered the art of water
management with 1,33,732 check dams and 2,49,537 farm ponds constructed or
deepened in the State over the last one decade," a senior government
official told Business Line here.
Apart from water management, the Gujarat farmers
have taken up drip irrigation in a big way. With the State-promoted Gujarat
Green Revolution Company (GGRC) earmarking investment of Rs 1,500 crore over
a period of five years, the area under drip irrigation has increased from
30,000 hectares in 2004-05 to two lakh hectare in 2009-10.
"In fact, around 100 villages in Gujarat
are now solely dependent on sprinklers for their farming activity," the
official said.
While nearly 105 lakh hectares of land has
so far been brought under cultivation of agriculture, the last six years have
seen the area under horticulture increase from 9.69 lakh hectare to 12.68
lakh hectare in the State.
In 2009-10, the State produced 152.74 lakh
tonnes of horticulture produce, including banana, papaya, mango, guava and
tomato.
Kesar mangoes
The idea of a Junagarh farmer, Batuksinh,
to cultivate the kesar variety of mango caught on in Valsad in the 1990s and
this has replaced all other rivals in the State now.
Kesar cultivation started in 2005 even in
Kutch, the driest district of Gujarat. Now, the border district is poised
to export around 90,000 tonnes, as against 25,564 tonnes last year, of the
King of Fruits to West Asia this year, with 7,800 hectares of arid land brought
under cultivation there.
After Kaprada (Valsad), the tribal district
of the Dangs has commenced cultivation of cashew nuts and has found market
even in Goa, home to cashew nut. The area under cashew nut has now doubled
from 4,127 hectare in 2009-10.
Floriculture
Floriculture, too, has emerged as a new farming
business in Gujarat, with area under cultivation almost doubling to 12,534
hectare in 2009-10, compared to 6,956 hectare in 2004-05.
The State, which is actively promoting cultivation
of rose, marigold, mogra and lily, produced 95,185 tonnes of flowers in 2009-10.
The State now has 165 green-houses for floriculture that defy the vagaries
of Nature impacting floriculture.
The area under spices has increased from 3.58
lakh hectare to 4.96 lakh hectare, with a lion's share of cumin (3.11 lakh
ha).
Mr Mahendra Patel, an electronics goods dealer
at Ahmedabad, developed a fancy for cultivating Dutch roses when he came across
an Israeli Web site. Inspired, he toured flower producing areas of Maharashtra
and Karnataka and started cultivating Dutch roses in two acres of his 18-acre
farm at Kashindra village near here in August 2009.
He also received a government grant of Rs
13 lakh per acre and is now earning Rs 3 lakh a month by selling his produce
in the city.
Next, he is planning to market Dutch roses
in Delhi, Jaipur and Bangalore too, the official said.
Since 2004-05, the area under cultivation
of fruits has phenomenally increased by 10 times, from 2.72 lakh hectare to
21.71 lakh hectare with mango (1.21 lakh ha), banana (61,919 ha) and citrus
(37,076 ha) leading the pack. Similarly, the area under vegetables has increased
from 3.31 lakh hectare to 4.06 lakh hectare, with potato and onion constituting
a quarter of this area.
