World Bank team leader meets Horticulture Minister

World Bank team leader Bekzod Shamshiev met Revenue and Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi here today and held discussions on challenges faced by horticulturists and farmers of the state.

 The Minister said that the state government was focusing on providing high-quality plants, better facilities of irrigation, transportation, marketing, storage, better prices of crops and new plantations in place of old plants to the horticulturists. He said that there was a need to prepare an action plan to deal with the challenges faced by the horticulturists from the apple-growing states.

He said that the first phase of the Horticulture Development Project of the World Bank has been completed. In the second phase, activities like horticulture, agriculture and animal husbandry would also be added to this project. He said that a proposal would be prepared with a holistic approach in this regard and sent to the government. The government would take the final decision on this.

Mr. Shamshiev lauded the efforts of the state government and said that Himachal Pradesh has worked in excellent coordination in the Horticulture Development Project and the World Bank was determined to solve the problems of horticulturists and farmers under this project in the future too.

The Horticulture Minister assured him that the state government would provide all possible support to the World Bank.

Secretary Horticulture C. Palrasu, Horticulture Development Project and HPMC MD Sudesh Kumar Mokhta and Director Horticulture Vinay Singh were present in the meeting.