Karnataka State Horticulture Development Agency
To server as Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for for successful and meaningful development of the farms and nurseries of the Department of Horticulture Karnataka State Horticulture Development Agency (KSHDA) was established on 14 November, 2008
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To act as a public sector agency for arranging production, procurement and supply of seed and planting materials of all horticultural crops and also bio-fertilizers, bio-control agents and bio-pesticides.
To produce quality planting materials and vegetable seeds of different horticultural crops in biocentres, departmental farms and nurseries and also to produce and sell bio-inputs and bio-control agents.
To produce / procure, handle, distribute horticultural seed and planting material and other horticultural prerequisites on behalf of the Department of Horticulture.
To develop, strengthen and improve the infrastructure facilities of the Farms and Nurseries and maintain them as learning models for improving production and productivity of Horticulture crops
To establish, manage and run bio-centers including bio-control labs, parasitic labs of the department for continuously generating inputs and services at affordable rates for the farmers.
To build and operate crop development centers for holistic development of specific crops such as Mango, Pomegranate, Oil Palm, Banana, grapes etc., with End (Nursery) to End (marketing) approach.
To execute special & innovative components like organic farming, rain water harvesting, drip irrigation and fertigation, drought proofing, etc., at farms and nurseries thereby serving as knowledge centres for various horticulture stakeholders
To protect, preserve and enhance the plant wealth at departmental farms and nurseries and to develop them as bio-resource centers and botanical gardens.
To manage farms and nurseries professionally either with the State/ Central Governments with increased allocation of budget or with the assistance of the external agencies or Joint ventures or PPP models.
To implement various development programs like Coconut Development Board (CDB), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Medicinal Plants Board and other schemes as and when entrusted by the Department of Horticulture to KSHDA
The salient features of “Karnataka State Horticulture Development Agency” are as below
This Agency shall be registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960.
It will have a two (2) tier administrative mechanism namely, General Body and Executive Committee.
The General Body shall provide overall policy guidance and support to the programmes of the Agency and the Executive Committee shall be the Governing Body to whom the management of its affairs will be entrusted.
Minister for Horticulture will be the Chairman of the General Body and Additional Chief Secretary & Development Commissioner will be the Chairman of the Executive Committee. The Principal Secretary/ Secretary (Horticulture) will be the Executive Chairman of the Executive Committee. The Executive Director, KSHDA would be the Member-Secretary for both the Committees.
One representative each from Horticulture nurseries, Biotech Companies and farmers representative will be nominated by the Government as member on the General Body. The General Body will have powers to co-opt any other person on the Executive Committee based on the needs.
The Additional Director of Horticulture (Farms and Nurseries) will be the Executive Director, KSHDA on concurrent charges.
The post of General Manager would be filled up from the existing post of Deputy Director of Horticulture (Grapes) through redeployment.
The services of Account Officer would be obtained from State Accounts Department.
The posts of two (2) Executive Managers, Systems Manager, Accountant, Computer Assistant, two (2) Securities and Office Assistants would be filled up on contract basis.
Two (2) Technical Officers posts would be filled up by deputation from Horticulture Department.
The strategy for the farms and nurseries development are as below
Development of farms and nurseries both State and District sectors will be categorized keeping in view their viability, strength and requirement.
The required investment for self generating and profit making will be pooled not only from Government resources but through joint-ventures, external agencies etc.
The income generated from the farms will be deposited in to a Revolving Fund, which will plough-back into the farms for developmental activities, which is now being remitted to the Treasury as at present.
The implementing officers managing farms and nurseries at State, District, Farms level, Biotech centers will serve as ex-officio project officers and implement the activities of the agency under the supervision of Executive Committee.
Various activities supplementary to the Horticulture Development such as model propagation centers, organic farms, biotech units; etc will be established to serve farmers and their needs.
Non-viable farms will be utilized for post harvest managerial activities such as processing units, markets, etc with joint venture, wherever possible.
The Agency will work in the direction of reducing its dependence on Government assistance over the years.
Farms will be provided external technological input through consultancy services of experts on out- source basis.
The Agency, besides developing farms and nurseries, will also supplement the efforts of the Department of Horticulture in identifying NGOs, SHGs, Farmers Groups, for production, procurement and distribution of inputs in beneficiary oriented programmes for better speed and quality in achieving the goals of the schemes.
The Karnataka State Horticulture Department Agency will be an autonomous Agency registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960 and it will have a General Body under the chairmanship of the Minister for Horticulture and an Executive committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner. The General Body will take decisions on the policy-related issues and the Executive Committee will have managerial and financial powers. There will be an Executive Director for the Karnataka State Horticulture Development Agency and the Additional Director of Horticulture (Farms / Nursery) will be on concurrent charges. Hence there will be no burden on the Government.
There is a need for an institutional set up on similar lines of Suvarna Karnataka Garden Trust to protect and develop horticulture farms and nurseries. Hence Karnataka State Horticulture Development Agency will be established under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960 which would provide autonomy in decision making, out-sourcing expertise, pooling resources besides ensuring accountability in order to improve the utility of existing government resources through better technological, managerial and administrative inputs.