Call for techno upgradation in plantation sector in north

Coonoor (Nilgiris District), Sep 16 (UNI) Union Minister of state for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today called upon United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) to start 'Krishi Vigyan Kendras' (KVK) in the northern states to help small growers for technological upgradation.

Addressing the 113th UPASI annual conference here he said the Centre will concentrate on plantation industry to bring in more foreign exchange. Unfortunately, the plantation industry is earning only 1.5 billion US dollars from exports against 100 billion dollars from the other industries.

He said but it was not possible to leave out the plantation sector as it generated employment in rural areas for five million people, with 60 per cent of them being women.

Stressing four areas for plantation sector to comcemtrate, to increase its contribution to the economic development of the country, Mr Jairam said Sri Lanka and Kenya were a threat to the Indian plantation industry, not only in the international market but also domestic market as far as the tea indsutry was concerned.

Unless they make a huge investment to increase the productivity, it would be difficult for them to survive.

He said to help the plantation industry, the Centre has planned to set up a "special purpose tea fund" to rejunevate and replant 40 year-old tea plants. This would be from November this year all over the country. The Centre has allocated Rs 4,700 crore and this amount would be spent over 15 years.

Mr Jairam Ramesh said the Centre will announce a package for pepper crops in February 2007 for replanting the crop. Under this scheme 70,000 hectares of pepper crops would be replanted in Idukki and Waynad districts of Kerala.

He said the replantation programme which began some time back, has not completed the target with about 50,000 hectares to be replanted in pepper industry sector.

Speaking about the tea replantation, the minister said the country needed 1.67 crore tea bushes for transplantation and there was a need for modern technology to achieve this.

UNI KS VV JS1846