UP’s largest guava development centre to come up at Kaushambi
PRAYAGRAJ : In a bid to give guava production an organised fillip in Prayagraj and Kaushambi districts, Uttar Pradesh’s largest guava development centre is all set to come up in Kaushmabi as part of Indo-Israel collaboration.
“This state-of-the-art centre would be built on an area of around 10 hectares and would cost around Rs 10 crore. A budget of Rs 50 lakh has already been approved for the centre which would be completed by 2023,” said state horticulture department officials.
“The upcoming guava development centre would be constructed next to the national highway in Kokhraj area of Kaushambi which is famous for both ‘Safeda’ and ‘Lal Surkha’ varieties of guava. Apart from different facilities that would come up at the centre in the larger interests of guava cultivators, the foremost would be a proper site for teaching farmers the skill of enhancing guava production based on farming technique of Israel,” said chief horticulturist, horticultural experiment and training centre, Khusro Bagh, Krishna Mohan Choudhary who is part of the team leading the efforts.
There would be two separate parts of the centre: One would impart training to the farmers while the second one would develop nursery and conduct experiments on developing newer varieties of Guava, he added.
The nursery would provide saplings of different varieties of guavas to farmers. At the same time, the training section of the centre would make guava cultivators aware of the latest techniques, which when followed, would not only yield more produce but also resolve the repeated menace of pests damaging the crops.
“The largest guava development centre of the state is being constructed with the help of Israel government under the Indo-Israel collaboration and apart from Indian scientists, agricultural scientists from Israel will also give training and suggestions to local farmers,” said Chaudhary. “Both “Safeda” and “Lal Surkha” varities of guava are cultivated in an area of around 4,000 hectares in Prayagraj and around 6,000 hectares in Kaushambi,” he added.
The centre would also make farmers aware about different guava-based industries that they can set up, teach them to deal with the problem of pests and insects while also give live display of newer varieties of guava plant. Several villages of Muratganj, Chail, Kokhraj and Bakrabad areas of the two districts are prominent growers of the fruit in the region.