The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Jairam Ramesh inaugurates vapour heat treatment plant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Jairam Ramesh inaugurates vapour heat treatment plant

G.V. Ramana Rao

All praise for AP State Agro Industries Corporation

—PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

BOON TO RYOTS: Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh makes a point after inaugurating the Integrated Pack House and Vapour Heat Treatment plant at Nuzvid in Krishna district on Tuesday.

NUZVID: An integrated pack house and vapour heat treatment facility for mangoes, established at a cost of Rs. 13 crores by the A.P. State Agro Industries Corporation Limited (AP Agros), was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh here on Tuesday.

Lauding A.P. Agros for completing the project in a record time, the Union Minister said while the State government contributed Rs. 3 crores, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) invested Rs. 10 crores.

Nuzvid importance

The Union Minister said Andhra Pradesh was a very important mango producer in the country and Nuzvid was very important for its mangoes in the State. He said the vapour heat treatment plant would be a great boon to mango farmers because it would enable them to export the fruit to Japan. A single mango was selling for Rs. 200 in Japan, he said.

The Minister said the Central government was making efforts to increase the area of cultivation of palm oil. As much as Rs. 10,000 crores in foreign exchange was paid to Malaysia and Indonesia for the 35 lakh tonnes of palm oil imported into the country last year. A target had been set to increase the area under oil palm to 10 lakh acres by 2014.

He said Andhra Pradesh, which was cultivating oil palm in 1.5 lakh acres, was number one in palm oil production in the country. An action plan to increase the area under crop by another 50,000 acres in 2008-09 was under implementation.

Efforts lauded

Minister for Agriculture N. Raghuveera Reddy lauded the efforts of Mr. Ramesh in bringing the latest technology to the area for the benefit of mango farmers. Mr. Reddy also appreciated the work Mr. Ramesh was doing for the tribals spending all his local area development programme funds for their development.

Nuzvid MLA Meka Venkata Pratapa Appa Rao said 50 tonnes of mango had already been subjected to vapour heat treatment in the new plant on an experimental basis and the farmers were able to sell the fruit for Rs. 10,000 a tonne despite anthracnose (mangu) infesting it. He said the demand to make Nuzvid a mango hub by spending Rs. 20 crores was still pending.

Machilipatnam MP Badiga Ramakrishna lauded the efforts of the Union Minister, Agriculture Minister and MLA in making the plant a reality.

Eluru MP K.S. Rao said that the government’s investments in the coastal districts was always poor.

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

Andhra Pradesh