‘Udyan Fresh’ outlets to be opened in Berhampur soon

‘Udyan Fresh’ vegetable outlets would be opened up in Berhampur city soon, said director of Odisha horticulture department, Sanjiv Kumar Chaddha. Mr. Chaddha was in the city to inaugurate the two-day exhibition of produces of vegetable and flower growers of Ganjam district at the premises of new flower market and training centre for floriculture. According to him, Berhampur would be the second urban centre in the State after Bhubaneswar to have ‘Udyan Fresh’ vegetable outlets. The other townships where ‘Udyan Fresh’ outlets are to come up were Sambalpur and Rourkela.

Through the ‘Udyan Fresh’ project the State horticulture directorate has decided to set up vegetable vending kiosks to ensure better income for local vegetable growers through eradication of middlemen. Apart from it this project would also ensure that consumers get fresh vegetables directly from farmers at a fair price. This project has been taken up in public private partnership mode. According to Mr. Chaddha process was on to register around 10,000 vegetable growers of Ganjam district for the ‘Udyan Fresh’ outlets in Berhampur.

A training programme for floriculture was also inaugurated. Around 120 farmers attended this training programme. 307 vegetable growers and 42 flower growers had participated in this two-day exhibition. According to Sridhar Verma, secretary of Ganjam District Flower Growers’ Association (GDFGA), they had displayed all the common as well as exotic flowers that were being grown in the district on commercial basis. The GDFGA members repeated their demand that activation of cooling chamber and auctioning facility would help in proper marketing of flowers and help in enhancement of floriculture in the area. Visitors were astonished by a huge yam that weighed 52 kilograms and a large pumpkin which weighed over 26 kg.

Source: The Hindu