Birsa Harit Gram Yojna gives new dimension to rural livelihood

Apart from mango , other fruit bearing Plants like guava, lemon, pear, custard apple, ber, jackfruit, drumstick horticulture have to be promoted. Horticulture of mixed fruit plants is to be encouraged. Under MGNREGA, mango horticulture, guava horticulture, shady tree plantation will be done through Birsa Green Village Scheme, said Secretary, Rural Development Department, Prashant Kumar while addressing the meeting of the State Horticulture Advisory Committee organized in the auditorium of FOFP building here on Monday.

Kumar said that tree plantation work is being done in all the districts of the state under Birsa Harit Gram Yojana. He informed that for the successful implementation of Birsa Green Village Scheme, all the representatives of MGNREGA and JSLPS will be re-trained for the horticulture scheme to be held in the year 2023-24.

It was decided in the meeting that Didi Bagiya Yojana, run by the sisters of SHG, training and other assistance should be provided to the entrepreneurs to prepare fruit plants so that quality plants can be produced in the nursery. It was also decided to consider getting the nurseries established under the Didi Bagiya scheme registered with the National Horticulture Board through JSLPS.

It is necessary to train Horticulture Sakhis for the purpose of timely capacity building and to make them technically more capable, as continuous technical advice is given by them in the horticulture being done by the beneficiaries. Therefore, after training them, timely payment of wages should be ensured in lieu of the work done by them under horticulture.

Under the Birsa Green Village Scheme, besides mango plants, other fruits like pear, orange, lemon, guava, jackfruit, dates, custard apple, etc., which can be grown according to Jharkhand’s Climate, have also agreed to include bamboo, drumstick. Along with this, it was also decided that mixed fruit horticulture should be ensured in at least 25 percent of the total horticulture area under each district in the financial year 2023-24.