SHIMLA: The State Government is planning to plant 20 lakh orange plants in 1800 hectare of land using the state-of-the-art technology. The latest technology will increase the survival rate of plants considerably.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the State Government is committed to promote horticulture besides increasing the income of the farmers. Several schemes have been initiated and many programmes were launched to promote this pivotal sector.

World Bank funded Horticulture Development Project envisages the promotion of productivity, quality and marketing of horticultural products and fruit production.

The State Government is laying emphasis on adopting new techniques to deal with this problem and improve the horticulture sector.

Plantation models of several fruit-producing states are being studied and farmers are being motivated to adopt the latest technology to ensure that the survival rate of plants increases considerably.

For this purpose, a delegation led by Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi is on a 6 days foreign tour to Australia under the HP Shiva Project funded by the Asian Development Bank, he added.

The Chief Minister said that the team during its visit observed and studied the modern techniques of screening, testing, cleaning and maintenance etc. being adopted in the field of plant health management in Australia during their tour.

The team also visited the Strawberry Industry Certification Authority and the Elizabeth Agricultural Institute laboratories in Sydney and discussed modern techniques for nursery registration programs.

Apart from observing the micro-grafting technique in orange cultivation, citrus pathology program and national citrus repository program were discussed.

It is proposed to cover 1800 hectares of land for orange production in the state under the HP SHIVA project with a requirement of about 20 lakh plants.

This is a key initiative of the state government to gain technical knowledge from Australia and utilize it to guide horticulturists in the state for improving the horticulture sector.

This will help in preparing high quality orange plants in the state for the orange orchardists.

Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that this tour will be instrumental to adopt new technology practiced in Australia to the state so as to increase the production of the horticulturists besides strengthening their economy.