Horticulture Dept to organise Nursery Mela from Aug 12

Hyderabad, Aug 7 (UNI) The Horticulture Department of the Andhra Pradesh Government will organise a five-day Nursery Mela in the city from August 12.

Informing this to reporters here today Commissioner of Horticulture Anil Punetha said 1000 varieties of plants and exhotic flowers would be displayed in the exhibition cum-sale during the mela.

He said 1050 nurseries were engaged in preparation of plants with an annual turnover of Rs 375 crore in the state. The Kadiyam nursery village in East Godavari was famous in the country with an anual turnover of more than Rs 150 crore, he informed.

He said Railway Kodur and Simhadripuyram in Kadapa district has 90 exclusive nurseries producing 20 lakh sweet orange saplings and supplying to Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

He said the department with 40 horticulture farms spread across the state under control was caltivating quality plants and targeted to produce 34 lakh fruits and ornamental plants to supply to farmers and plant lovers during 2006-07.

He said the objective of the mela was to bring all the nurserymen on a common platform to exchange their ideas and display and sell their plants to the farmers, horticulturists and home gardners and to popularise various species of plants produced by different nurserymen suitable for the state besides inculcating interest in ornamental gardening.

He said Garden tool and accessories, Tissue Culture plants, Horticulture implements and machinery, green house and accessories, Bonsai plants Bio-fertilisers seeds, irrigation system, pesticides , fertilisers and publications would be on display in the mela.

He said nurseries in six to seven districts were damaged in the recent floods.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy would inaugurate the Mela.

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