Other States - Uttar Pradesh   

Lucknow to have mint park

LUCKNOW: With Uttar Pradesh being the country’s biggest producer of mint, a mint park is to be set up in Lucknow, opening up new vistas for mint export from the region.

To be funded by the Spices Board of the Union Commerce Ministry, the mint park will be on the lines of the spices parks managed by the Spices Board.

The announcement was made by Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh at an Interface on “Mint-2007” here earlier this week. He said the park would be set up on 100 acres of land to be provided by the UP Government. State Agriculture Production Commissioner Anis Ansari, who was present at the discussions here, was asked by the Union Minister to facilitate the availability of land.In 2006-07 the export of spices from India was worth Rs. 3400 crore. Mint export was about one-third of the total export of spices.

With UP farmers increasingly diversifying into mint production, Mr. Ramesh said the proposed mint park would be a value addition. He said a black pepper and cardamom park in Kerala, a chillies park in Andhra Pradesh and an organic spices park in Assam are the other projects lined up for enhancing the export of spices and augmenting the income of farmers.

He also announced that laboratories would be set up with the help of the Spices Board in the five mint production areas of UP in Chandausi near Moradabad, Bareilly, Rampur, Sambhal and Barabanki for providing quality raw material to the farmers. He said the Lucknow-based Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants would help the farmers procure distillation units for extracting oil from mint. Farmers would get a 25 per cent subsidy under the National Horticulture Mission.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

U.P. to get World Bank aid
Lucknow to have mint park
Mexican girl gets married in Varanasi
Alleged drug peddler arrested
13 Dalits surrender
One killed, 13 injured in mishap

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu