Punjab all set for 'Citrus and Veg juice' revolution: Badal

Chandigarh, Aug 21 (UNI) Punjab is all set for a 'Citrus and Vegetable Juice' revolution with embarking upon an ambitious programme for planting Citrus orchards on 5577 acres.

The project would be undertaken in collaboration with Tropicana owned by (PepsiCo) the largest juice brand in the world and already 1137 acres has been covered under the Citrus plantation in the state. Moreover, seed and tissue culture would be imported to ensure 1.6 million saleable plants during 2007, a high-level meeting under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal held here decided late yesterday last evening.

The Punjab Government entered into a collaboration with Tropicana to bring International Citrus Technology in Punjab, the pioneering state to have this technology as the existing technology of citrus plantation at Nagpur has become obsolete, an official release said here today.

Presiding over the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the members of the council to impart training to the farmers for the plantation of Citrus including the practices of drip irrigation, raised bed cultivation and use of better varieties of root stocks and scions for different soils and climatic conditions in Punjab.

He hoped that the growing trend of citrus plantation would go a long way to encourage crop diversification and to find a suitable alternative for wheat paddy cropping pattern in Punjab.

It was informed in the meeting that the Council had imported 34 Citrus verities and 16 root stocks besides setting up of five Demo sites in different regions of Punjab in collaboration with Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Department of Horticulture.

To achieve the target, a team of trained field force consisting of Executive, Field Officers, Gardeners and other ground staff had been inducted by the council for Citrus and Agri juicing.

This council had already taken over the management of citrus nurseries at Jallowal and Lesriwal.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal apprised the Chief Minister that the State Government had agreed to stand guarantee of Rs 20 crore for leased plantation of citrus.

He said that nine major banks have offered to finance the citrus project on the basis of state government guarantee.

The State government has also taken a decision to explore commercial avenues by inviting Insurance Companies to provide credit/performance guarantee to the banks.

He said that the state government had already approved the citrus plantation over 5000 acres as a 'pilot project'. After obtaining results from this project, the citrus plantation would be taken up as a major state wide programme, he added.

UNI