A group of 30 women farmers, engaged in floriculture in Machilipatnam and Mylavaram areas of Krishna district, with the support of NABARD under Umbrella Program for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM) went on an exposure visit to Tamil Nadu Agriculture University in Coimbatore.
These women stayed there from May 6 to 9 to learn the potential of the jasmine market and several cultivation methods from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TAU) experts. Nestham, an NGO, as implementing agency, made this exposure visit come through.
They involved the women farmers in the inter-State exposure visit as part of the ‘Natural Resource Management’ programme.
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The TAU floriculture experts Jawaharlal, Kannan and Karthikeyan explained to the women about the techniques in jasmine extraction, its value-added products and field management.
Exports
The farmers also visited Vanguard Jasmine Export Company that largely exports garlands, strings and interacted with its managing director Sathumadhavan. “The three-day visit helped the farmers to realise the need to capture the jasmine market across India as well as abroad,” said Nestham director V. Suresh. They interacted with Jasmine Growers Association president Muthuswamy who explained about possible areas to expand the business from small town to the city, and measures to minimise input cost to grow jasmine.
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