Nagpur: “Orange is an important crop for farmers in Vidarbha and various research institutes in the country along with Nagpur are doing innovative research on orange,” said Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and appealed to the research institutes to take the initiative to ensure that the farmers get disease-free, high-quality, high-yielding citrus fruit seedlings.
Gadkari was speaking after inaugurating ‘Asian Citrus Congress 2023′ organized in association with Indian Society of Ciriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Central Citrus Research Institute held on Saturday in Nagpur.
The ‘Asian Citrus Congress 2023’ will be a dedicated and unique program for the advancement of the citrus industry in Asia and will bring together all stakeholders in the citrus sector with more than 300 delegates from 15 countries of the world and 20 states of India participating in the conference.
The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers, scientists, experts from around the world to share their knowledge, experience and innovations at one place and to establish new relationships, collaborations and networking among the participating representatives to transform the citrus industry.
Asian Citrus Congress-2023 is a 3-day conference being held from October 28 to 30 2023 at Nagpur, and the theme of the conference is “Advancing Citrus Culture for Agro-Economic Prosperity”. Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions, Bangkok, Thailand, Korean Society for Citrus and Subtropical Climate Fruits, Jeju City, South Korea are also participating in this conference.
Gadkari said that the country’s agricultural research institutes should supply 2 crore disease-free high-quality citrus plants to the farmers this year by partnering with private nurseries to fulfil this demand. There is a need for radical changes in agriculture to grow the third largest economy in the world and to fulfll the potential of the 5 trillion dollar economy. Agriculture rates in India should increase by more than 12 percent. Similarly, Gadkari mentioned that it is necessary to provide proper policies, proper guidance and proper market for the farmers regarding citrus fruits from time to time.
“Oranges are being exported abroad using the dry port at Sindhi Railway at Wardha in Vidarbha, reducing transport costs due to dry ports. Such dry ports will be available in various places in India in the future. In Nagpur, Mother Dairy and Patanjali Industries Group are currently making new products based on oranges. This will definitely help Vidarbha farmers to grow oranges,” Gadkari said and expressed his belief that new technologies, new policies, new ideas will emerge from this conference and important developments in the production and development of citrus fruits will take place.
Dr. Dilip Ghosh, Director of Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, asserted that the world’s only citrus fruit conference is being held in Nagpur and it is a matter of pride for Vidarbha. The production in India is lower than the western countries and this issue is going to be discussed in the conference.
Deputy Director T R Sharma said citrus fruits play an important role in the food table and these fruits are closely related to health. There are 27 different types of citrus species in India and some of these species have received Geographical Indications – GI recognition.
