The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India, has announced a new programme for Horticulture Cluster Development to enhance the global competitiveness of the Indian horticulture sector. The National Horticulture Board has been designated as the Nodal Agency for implementation of Cluster Development Programme as a component of Central Sector Scheme of NHB.
The Cluster Development Programme (CDP) is designed to leverage the geographical specialisation of horticulture clusters and promote integrated and market-led development of preproduction, production, post-harvest, logistics, branding, and marketing activities. MoA&FW has identified 55 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the Programme.
Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all 55 clusters. The experiences gathered from the implementation of the pilot phase will provide policy insights and field level learnings that will help in better implementation of programme in all horticulture clusters across India.
For the implementation of the CDP, a Government/Public Sector entity will be appointed as a Cluster Development Agency (CDA) based on the recommendations of the State/Central Government. This involvement of state government bodies through CDA will ensure institutionalisation of learnings which can be replicated in future for development of new clusters in the country.
