Ahmedabad: Gujarat will get two organic spices seed parks in Banaskantha and Patan districts for the promotion of organic seed value chain of fennel and cumin, supported by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), senior officials said here on Monday. NABARD Chairman G R Chintala said that two organic spices seed parks will come up in Banaskantha and Patan districts respectively for fennel and cumin, to cater to the growing demand of organic products in both India and abroad.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani released the sanction letters for the NABARD-supported innovative project during his meeting with Chintala on Monday, NABARD said in a statement. “Gujarat produces a lot of spices, and most are produced using fertilisers and pesticides. Even in India, there are so many customers who want to go for organic…The two organic spices seed parks, one in Banaskantha and the other one in Patan district, are run through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and have been financed by NABARD,” said Chintala.
Elaborating further, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Gujarat, D K Mishra said that the country’s apex agriculture financial institution has offered a grant of Rs 23 lakh to each of the two parks. “We seek to create an entire value chain, and capacity building for farmers. We are covering 50 farmers in each of the two parks. We will use the seeds for production and will market it after grading, sorting and packaging. We will market in such a manner that farmers associated with the FPOs get the seed,” Mishra said, adding that the effort is to build the process for captive use.
Chintala said that he also talked about cryogenic processing of spices during his meeting with the chief minister and other dignitaries. “Spices should not lose the flavour. Through cryo processing, the flavour will stay till it reaches the last customers. That kind of facility can come here. Whatever we are doing, we should be quality conscious. Agriculture should be customer-centric and quality centric, and not farmer-centric,” he said.
The NABARD chairman, who is on a four-day visit to Gujarat, said a good amount of credit offtake has happened in the agriculture sector on the back of record Rabi crop and Kharif showing. “From the normal Rs 90,000 crore which we generally give for crop loans at subsidised rates, we have decided to give up to Rs 1.20 lakh crore. We have crossed around Rs 40,000 crore (mark so far this financial year). Rs 80,000 crore is for long-term operations target. Right now, NABARD refinance has crossed Rs 20,000 crore,” he said.
He further said that with the new farm loans in place, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and FPOs can become “alternative marketing infrastructure” for farmers, adding that NABARD has committed Rs 5 crore for computerisation of PACs and urged the Gujarat government to support by way of matching grant contribution. The focus is also on export, he said.
“We are working in the direction to create a viable agri procurement and marketing infrastructure so that both domestic and international markets can be tapped. So Now we are working with the central government and having discussions… We require absolute quality control and traceability for this,” he said. In Gujarat, NABARD has released Rs 2,250 crore for refinancing in the current year so far. Credit flow for priority sector is Rs 57,851 so far this financial year compared to Rs 70,877 during the same period last year, and Rs 1,84,212 crore last year, Mishra said.
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