Farmers, women to be trained in fruit processing

Chandigarh, June 1 (UNI) The Haryana government has launched a new scheme to educate farmers and household women in the rural and urban areas about processing of fruit and vegetable products.

An amount of Rs 1.21 crore has been provided for setting up demonstration-cum-processing centres in five districts of the state under the scheme during the current financial year, a spokesman for the Horticulture Department said today.

The demonstration cum processing centres would be set up in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Rewari and Mohindergarh districts.

Training for rural or urban masses, especially for women and youth, would be organised at each centre to make them self-sufficient in processing of jam, murabba, pickles, squash and chutney.

He said that horticultural produce was highly perishable and need careful handling for better marketing and remunerative process.

At present, the losses in horticulture crops ranged from 15 to 25 per cent from harvesting to marketing. Moreover, during the peak season there was glut of horticulture produce and selling of the produce became difficult, he said.

Therefore, processing was an alternative left with the farmers to stabilise the rates so as to get remunerative rates of their produce, he added.

UNI