Anantapur emerging nurseries hub

Kalyandurgam (Anantapur): The district is emerging as the nurseries hub with more than 800 nurseries operating in different parts of the district and catering to farmers and domestic requirements. As one traverses towards down country in any route be it Kalyandurgam, Bellary, Benguluru high way, Battalapalle, Penugonda, Kadiri and Hindupuram areas, one can see hundreds of nurseries dotting the main routes of the mandals with thousands of saplings being raised under the shade net.

Hitherto farmers were depending upon seeds for vegetable plantations and horticulture crops like mango, guava, papaya, musk melon, water melon, sweet cucumber, sapodilla (sapota) berry, pomegranate and sweet oranges etc. The culture of sowing seeds has been replaced with planting saplings raised by nurseries. Most of these nurseries are procuring plants from Kadiyam, near Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district.

Hundreds of rural youth and farmers are taking to setting up of vegetable and fruit nurseries. They have found new avenues for self employment. Veeranna and Obuleshu running nurseries on the Kalyandurgam road say that every week lorry loads of plants arrive from Kadiyam. The plants which are in demand include 10 feet long mango plants, guava, berry (neredu), banana and papaya plants which are ready for plantation.

These plants reach fruit-bearing stage within six months to one year and therefore are in high demand. They revealed that for setting up a nursery, they invested Rs 4 lakh for setting up pillars, trays, plastic sheets, bore-well and shade net. In one acre about 70 to 80 mango plants can be raised. Each farmer is purchasing 400 to 500 plants for raising a mango farm in four to five acres of land.

Amarender Reddy, a farmer who purchased 400 mango plants from a nursery says that horticulture plantation yields rich dividends in the long run despite the long gestation period of one year to three years. Once the plant reaches fruit-bearing stage, it is regular handsome income for the farmers, says Reddy. Each mango and berry plant measuring 10 feet to 12 feet he says, he had purchased for Rs 350 to 400.

In these days of uncertainty in profitability of agriculture crops, horticulture crops are promising to farmers, in view of cost effective maintenance and less labor requirement, says Raju who is maintaining a nursery on the Pamidi and Guntakal road. On the Kalyandurgam road there are tens of tomato and vegetable nurseries supplying seeds and saplings to farmers.

Horticulture Deputy Director Subbarayudu told 'The Hans India' that a new horticulture act requiring those who set up nurseries to register with the government, came into being in 2013. In view of the mushrooming of hundreds of nurseries in the district, the horticulture task force is now engaged in visiting private nurseries and inspecting quality and asking all promoters of nurseries to get themselves registered with the government within 15 days or face closure.

The deputy director said that the prices of plants also would be monitored once the nurseries are registered. The Department of Horticulture is also running its own nurseries for supply of plantation to farmers. The department has a berry nursery in Hindupur, pomegranate in Kuderu, mango plants in Anantapur and papaya at Chigicherla. The department is also promoting low cost shade net nurseries by offering subsidies and incentives etc.

Hanumantha Rao, another farmer in Kalyandurgam says that nurseries are proving to be a boon to the farmers as they are getting ready made plants for transplantation. Most of the plants supplied by nurseries are good as they were procuring the plants from Kadiyam which is the national capital for nurseries. The very fact that hundreds of nurseries are established in the district is reflective of the huge demand for vegetable and horticulture plantation.

By Ravi P Benjamin