The Agriculture department is planning to launch a pilot project under the New Agriculture Wealth Opportunities - Driving Horticulture Agribusiness Networking (NAWO-DHAN) scheme with the first batch of land owners and cultivators who have evinced interest in participating in it.

Around 22 land owners and 149 cultivators have so far responded to an expression of interest (EoI) floated in October for NAWO-DHAN scheme, according to the department. Land owners in 11 districts have responded to the EoI for providing a total area of 1,600 acres. The department is in the process of shortlisting farmers from the list of 149 based on technical and financial criteria.

Under the scheme, farmer groups will be engaged for the cultivation through Service Level Agreements (SLA) treating ‘farming as a service’ without any transfer of any interest in the land concerned. The Agriculture department had floated the EoI under the aegis of the Kerala Agro Business Company (KABCO), which acts as special purpose vehicle, for the scheme.

NAWO-DHAN envisions increasing food crop production in Kerala by leveraging land lying fallow or unused. The State government has noted that “since the income from agriculture is not taxable, it is one of the attractions to invite more people/MNCs to invest in hi-tech value cropping through NAWO-DHAN proposal.”

According to Agriculture department estimates, there is annual production-demand gap of 13.76 lakh metric tonnes in the case of vegetables and, 14 lakh metric tonnes in the case of fruits. Kerala has a total cropped area of 25,23,014.31 hectares of which perennial crops account for more than 85%. Only 15% is under food crops. It is also estimated that Kerala has 1,03,334 hectares lying fallow.

Source: The Hindu