Horticulture dept plans 40 collection centers to provide retail outlets in Coimbatore, Chennai

 

Chennai:

In a bid to ensure continous supply of fresh vegetables to urban markets, the state horticulture department will set up 40 collection centers and 100 retail outlets in Coimbatore and Chennai.

 

Speaking Express on the sidelines of a conference Farm to Fork: Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Agribusiness & Food Processing Industry organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here, Satyabrata Sahoo, state commissioner, Directorate of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, Agriculture Department said that the state government has sought expressiom of interest for aggregators or private entrepreneurs for setting up 16 collections centers.

The move is to create forward linkages from rural to urban areas.  He said that Chennai and Coimbatore will have 50 retail outlets each under the scheme.

The move by the state horticulture department would ensure assured income to farmers in the rural areas adjoining the cities.  Clusters of farmers will be formed to supply their produce to a society run by the farmers at the District level. Private entrepreneurs or aggregators will be engaged to collect, sort, grade and pack the produce at their location and supply the same to retail outlets in the city. This scheme will be implemented as a public private partnership.

Sahoo also said that the rooftop gardening would soon be implemented in the state in 12,000 places. “We have called for tenders,” he said. Of the proposed 12,000 rooftop gardens, 9,000 would be taken up in the city while 3,000 rooftops in Coimbatore would be converted into gardens.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, Michael Carter, Australian Trade commissioner said that Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology, have entered into Rs 148 million partnership to help stamp out iron-deficiency anaemia, a major cause of maternal death during childbirth.  The project will see new strains of iron-rich bananas