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Friday, March 29 2024
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Vijayapura

ODOP for lemon yet to take off in Vijayapura District

Lemon
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Vijayapura: Despite the implementation of One District One Product (ODOP) in the District to promote lemon cultivation and preparation of its byproducts, the scheme is yet to gain the confidence of the farmers and entrepreneurs. Though the district has received around 25 applications under ODOP scheme for preparing byproducts of lemon, the officials said that majority of the applications are related to making pickles.

“The farmers and the entrepreneurs should know that many other byproducts of lemon can be prepared which have great demand in the market. We are trying to give training and information to them on these aspects,” said Santosh Sappandi, Managing Director of Karnataka State Lime Development Board. He said that as part of it, a first meeting of officials of related demands has recently taken place which was chaired by Dr. Uday Kumar who is expert in the field and serving as the head of post Harvesting Department of Raichur Agriculture University. He said that Dr. Uday Kumar who has gained expertise in the field of lime products, is ready to offer any kind of training and support to interested entrepreneurs for setting up of the unit.

Admitting that farmers and the entrepreneurs need more knowledge and awareness to start any industry in preparing byproducts, he said that the Board will soon be holding a meeting of farmers.

“In the meeting, we will be educating them about preparing dehydrated lemon, jelly, juice, powder, jam, squash, concentrated juice, oil extract etc. These are various products which have great demand in India and abroad,” he said.

Sappandi said that Dr. Kumar has suggested the officials to first go for making concentrated juice of lemon to begin with. “Since many farmers and potential businessmen have no knowledge of other products, therefore, as the first step, preparing concentrated juice would be better. This byproduct can be given a trial to various juice making companies to take their view. If they like it then a large quantity of juice can be supplied to them,” he said.

Stating that the government  is offering subsidies up to Rs. 10 lakh in ODOP, he said that lemon farmers and businessmen can take advantage of this. “All they need is the right knowledge of machinery and marketing. If that happens, then it will surely boost lemon production in the district. As we all know that Vijayapura is the highest lemon growing District in the State”, he said.

About the proposal submitted by the government from the board, he said that Rs. 8 Crore project details have been submitted to the government. He said that the project is expected to be approved in February. “If the government grants required funds, then we can set up training centres, processing units, grading units and cold storages for lemon in the District”, he said.

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