The Central government has suggested to the State to take up promotion of identified agriculture and allied sectors’ products in a cluster approach through convergence of Central government schemes envisaging increase in the value of the products with an ultimate aim of increasing the income of farmers.
To be taken up under the One District One Focus Produce (ODOFP) programme, the list of products have been finalised after taking inputs from the States/Union Territories and deliberations between the Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Food Processing industries.
The identified products would be supported under the PM-FME scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries that provides incentives to promoter and micro-enterprises, the Union Agriculture Ministry said in a letter addressed to Chief Secretaries of all the States/UTs.
Accordingly, products have been prioritised for all the districts across the State as part of the focused approach. The Centre suggested cultivation of chillies in Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Khammam, Bhupalpalli, Mahabubabad and Mulugu districts and groundnut in Jogulamba Gadwal, Narayanpet and Wanaparthy districts. Yadadri-Bhongir, Sangareddy and Siddipet have been preferred for milk-based products and Jagtial, Mancherial and Nagarkurnool for mangoes while cultivation of turmeric has been recommended for Nizamabad.
Cultivation of soybean has been recommended in Adilabad, Kamareddy and Nirmal districts while Vikarabad and Rangareddy are favoured for vegetable cultivation in clusters. The State capital along with other urban centres Medchal-Malkajgiri, Medak and Warangal Urban should promote industries dealing with ready-to-eat snacks.
The Centre said in its letter that many products included convergence of resources and approach from other departments. The Union government would take steps to support ODOFP from its ongoing centrally-sponsored schemes like RKVY and thus, no separate funding would be required. The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy have also been requested for similar convergence, the letter said.
The converged resources approach would make the programme robust and sustainable and would help in making it a success. The State governments were accordingly requested to plan for implementation of the programme, which could benefit farmers and provide support for realising the expectations of value addition and subsequently enhancing agricultural export.
