14-Dec-2022: Union Agriculture Minister Shri Tomar chairs the 32nd meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Horticulture Board

The 32nd meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Horticulture Board (NHB) was held in New Delhi today under the chairmanship of the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Chairman of the Board, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar. It was decided that the process of approval of horticulture projects will be simplified for the farmers. Instead of two stages, the process of approval will now be completed in one go and it will be completely digital, along with minimum documents will be required, as a result of which the farmers will not face any problem. Significantly, many projects which used to be approved in a time period of about 6 to 8 months, will now be approved in just 45 days.

As a follow up on this process, the scheme design, application filing system, documentation and approval process have been further simplified. The new simple design will come into effect from January 1, 2023. Union Minister Shri Tomar expressed the hope that this process will make the system more transparent and efficient, promote Ease Of Doing Business for the benefit of the farming community and generate more hi-tech commercial projects for NHB funding. In the new design, NHB has also taken initiative to promote convergence of Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme with its credit linked subsidy schemes.

The meeting also discussed in detail the new initiative of NHB- Swachh Plant  Programme, under which the problem of availability of planting material to the farmers will be solved by spending Rs 2100 crore with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB). This will largely solve the problem of planting material, especially for many commercially important fruits. This programme will go a long way in providing a major contribution to the much needed quality planting material for horticulture crops in the country.

Under NHB, a new vertical has been created towards promotion of organic and natural farming, which will oversee all aspects of the organic sector such as planning, monitoring, area expansion-production, market promotion for value chain development and infrastructure development. In this meeting, the progress of the cluster development programme being run by the Board was also discussed, on which it has been decided that the approval process of applications will be completed at the earliest. The decisions taken in the previous meeting of the Board of Directors were approved in today’s meeting.

10-Dec-2021: Subsidy for Construction of Cold Storage

National Horticulture Board (NHB) is implementing a scheme namely “Capital Investment Subsidy for Construction/Expansion/Modernization of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Products”. Under this scheme, credit linked back-ended subsidy @35% of the capital cost of the project in general areas and @50% in case of North East, Hilly States and Scheduled areas for cold storage capacity above 5000 MT and up to 10000 MT is sanctioned for construction/ expansion/ modernization of Cold Storage and Controlled Atmosphere (CA) store. In case of North East Region, the capacity above 1000 MT is also eligible.

National Horticulture Board being a sub-scheme under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), as of now there is no proposal to increase subsidy for construction of cold storage.

1-Jul-2021: Union Agriculture Minister Sh. Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurates National Horticulture Board Centre at Gwalior

Taking forward the activities and programmes of National Horticulture Board, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India opened centre in the state of Madhya Pradesh.  Sh. Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare inaugurated the new Centre of National Horticulture Board (NHB) at Gwalior.

NHB, which is mandated for integrated development of hi-tech commercial horticulture and post-harvest management/cold chain infrastructure in the country, is having centers/offices at various locations of the country and at least one centre is there almost in each state for implementation, monitoring and coordination of its various Schemes and activities. Some of the bigger states like UP and Maharashtra are having more than one centre due to their geography and higher quantum of work.

 Madhya Pradesh, which is the second largest state in the Country, is rapidly diversifying into horticulture sector for the last few years. It is the third largest producers of vegetables in the country and 5th largest producers in Fruits.

Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Tomar said, “The horticulture segment has become the sunrise sector for MP. Gwalior Division of Madhya Pradesh is geographically located in Northern part of the State. Gwalior and Chambal divisions correspond to the Gird region of Madhya Pradesh.”

Given the huge potential of horticulture in the State of Madhya Pradesh, the new Centre of National Horticulture Board will play a significant role in boosting development of horticulture in this region. With the opening of new Centre of NHB at Gwalior, farmers of not only in the Gwalior Division but also from 21 districts of Northern Madhya Pradesh including Grid region of Gwalior and Chambal will be benefited under the Schemes of National Horticulture Board.

The agriculture minister also added, “As of now National Horticulture Board had only one Centre in Madhya Pradesh at Bhopal. However, keeping in view the huge geographical area of the State and physical distances of several districts and areas from Bhopal, farmers usually find it very difficult to avail the benefits of the schemes of NHB and technical guidance with respect to latest development in horticulture sector.”

Madhya Pradesh Food Processing Minister (Independent Charge) Sh. Bharat Singh Kushwaha and Gwalior MP, Sh. Vivek Narayan Shejwalkar, thanked the union agriculture minister for opening NHB centre in the Gwalior region.

The event was also attended by Jilla Panchayat Chairman Smt. Manisha Yadav, local representatives and farmers. MD of NAFED Sh. Sanjiv Chadha, MD of NHB Sh. Rajbir Singh, Union Agriculture Secretary Sh. Sanjay Agarwal along with other officials virtually joined the event.