The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today laid the foundation stone of Satyanand Stokes Centre of Excellence of Temperate Fruit at Kot-Shillaru and Sabji Mandi at Sandhu in Theog constituency of Shimla district. Addressing a public meeting later at Shillaru, he said that constant training and familiarization with farm technology was must for quality fruit crop production in the horticulture sector.
The project has been launched taking into consideration for improving the quality of fruit products vis-a vis to adopt latest technique for pollination management and to induce new lease of life for unproductive orchards besides up-gradation of technology. He said that in order to address constraint of low productivity of fruit crops in the State, the government has signed a project of Rs. 1134 crore with World Bank for rapid and sustainable development of horticulture sector. The project will be implemented in all the 12 districts of the State for next five years.
The Chief Minister said that Satyanand Stokes Centre of Excellence of Temperate Fruit at Kot-Shillaru would have a high-density orchard of apple, pear, cherry and clonal to make aware and demonstrate the growers about the latest technological advantage of the high-density plantation for higher production. He said special provision had been made in the project to develop community irrigation facility covering 19560 hectares of project area under irrigation to ensure availability of water during summer and critical stages of plant growth.
