India: NHM joins hands with Israel to share expertise in vegetable farming

To provide good quality vegetable seedlings throughout the year, the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) has joined hands with Israel to develop expertise in vegetable farming. The two nations started an Indo-Israel Centre for Excellence in Vegetables at NHM, Gharaunda near Karnal, in January 2011. The project - spread over 15 acre and doing a business of Rs 55 lakh per annum - is close to Agrom SEZ at Gannaur providing easy market access to farmers. "The objective is to provide better quality seedlings to our farmers and to promote various types of vegetable crops through green house and poly-house farming," said Paramvir Singh, Haryana's agriculture minister.

"The Israeli technology is good for all kinds of farmers, especially small farmers, who can adopt the open field vegetable farming technique that costs a little higher than traditional ways," he said. "We are giving 65% subsidy on poly-house and other kinds of farming under this Indo-Israeli project," he added.
"Israeli experts visit this farm every fortnight to update our experts and farmers," said AS Saini, joint director of Haryana Horticulture Department. "Israel has the expertise in vegetable farming and its technology is accepted world-wide to enhance the vegetable production," he said. Uri Rubinstein, counsellor, international cooperation, science and agriculture, said: "Greenhouse farming, high-tech nurseries, naturally ventilated poly houses, vegetable farming without using soil, poly culture and drip irrigation are some of the technologies we have shared with the Indian government." "Providing high-yielding hybrid seeds is also our job but we don't interact with farmers. We only interact with officials and experts," said the counsellor.

The benefit of this collaboration is getting higher yields. The counsellor said that the yield can go up to ten times higher. He also informed that the poly houses developed with the Israeli technique do not allow pests to enter the farm and therefore the investment on pesticides goes down. "Pollination by bumble bees is a must in a poly house, a new technique that we are in a preliminary stage to verify. If we can import them from Israel (due to quarantine restriction) in India, it can enhance the yield by 30%," the counsellor added. At the project site, "We produce around 10 varieties of capsicum, six to eight varieties of tomatoes, brinjal, bitter gourd, chillies, pepper, cucumber, cauliflower, cabbage and other traditional vegetables," said Dr SK Yadav, project officer at the Centre of Excellence for Vegetables at Gharaunda, Karnal.

"Through this Israeli technology, we can grow any crop throughout the year in our style; while our farmers are limited by the season. Apart from this, the crop yield has gone four to five times northward, which is good as far as the demand for vegetables is growing," said Dr SK Arora, vegetable expert at NHM, Gharaunda. Arora, a national award winner for his contribution to crop sciences, said NHM's Indo-Israeli project has appointed one expert for every crop, which is unique in India. The temperature inside the green house and poly house is maintained in between 20-22 degree Celsius. During winters they use blowers and ovens to increase the temperature while during summers, coolants are used to maintain the temperature inside. It helps in the uniform growth of seedlings and plants. "These technologies are fetching good returns. On an average, setting up a green house or poly house on one acre of land requires around Rs 40 lakh (Rs 900 per sq m) and in one year it gives a minimum return of around Rs 60 lakh," said Yadav.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com