Report of National Horticulture Fair-2020
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bengaluru, a premier institution under Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi organized four-day National Horticulture Fair (NHF 2020) from February 5th-8th, 2020. The theme of the fair was Horticulture: making farming an enterprise”
- The fair organized in collaboration with Society for Promotion of Horticulture, Bengaluru; Department of Horticulture, Govt of Karnataka, and Karnataka State Department of Agriculture was inaugurated by Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary DARE and Director General (DG), ICAR in the presence of farmers, entrepreneurs, officials of ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), development departments, representatives of private industry and press personnel.
- The fair attracted large attention of farmers for on-farm demonstration of large number of improved/disease & pest resistant varieties developed by institute in various vegetables, fruits, flowers and medicinal crops.
- Promising processing tomato cultivars, Arka Apeksha & Arka Vishesh, rust resistant pole type French bean variety, Arka Sukomal and gummy stem blight resistant bottle gourd hybrid, IIHR BGH-10, and technologies for the management of pinworm, Tuta absoluta, diamond black moth and aphids in cabbage using neem powder pellets, and integrated disease management in chilli were the new technologies demonstrated in the fair.
- Demonstration on Mango-based Integrated Farming Systems, Mixed Cropping System, vegetable grafting technology in chilli and tomato, and organic & soilless cultivation of vegetables were the special features of the fair and it drew lot of attention of the farmers.
- The polyhouse with cultivation of high value vegetables and ornamental crops also attracted several farmers.
- Special focus in the fair was given on the needs of the peri-urban horticulture through daily workshops on terrace gardening, organized by the Society for Promotion of Horticulture, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru.
- The two solar-powered tricycles, one for vegetables to reduce post-harvest losses and other for fresh mushroom harvesting inaugurated during the fair caught major attraction of farmers & other visitors.
- For online sales of vegetable & flower seeds of ICAR-IIHR developed varieties, a web application, ‘ICAR-IIHR Seed Portal’ was launched during the fair. The portal has looks and functionality similar to that of any other commercial e-business portals like Amazon and Flipkart.
- A trilingual mobile app ‘Arka Bagwani’ in English, Hindi and Kannada, capable of providing information on institute developed varieties & technologies, success stories, and availability of seeds & planting material was also released during the fair.
- A technical bulletin containing useful information about various schemes of the Government of India was also released for the benefit of farmers and other stakeholders.
- Scientists of ICAR-IIHR through interactions helped the farmers in providing solutions their horticultural related problems and educated them with the production technologies, plant protection measures, mushroom cultivation technologies and value addition of horticultural produce.
- Several ICAR institutes, development departments, public & private sector organizations and input industries participated exhibition of the fair wherein 268 high tech stalls were arranged. The exhibition provided a common platform for service providers in showcasing various inputs for horticultural crops.
- The fair also had exclusive stall for the display of ICAR-IIHR-developed technologies, sales of seeds, planting materials & other products, and sold these of more than 10 lakhs in 4 days event.
- Many visitors liked the concept of water conservation through construction of a farm pond using indigenous material and making its water available for fish rearing and horticulture crops irrigation during the fair.
- Apart from farming community, large number students from various schools & colleges participated in the fair and showed keen interest towards knowing various technologies of ICAR-IIHR.
- During the fair, eight farmers representing Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Odisha were felicitated by the DG, ICAR for their contributions in the field of horticulture and popularising the varieties/ technologies of the ICAR-IIHR.
- Prizes for best exhibitors of the Fair were distributed by Dr W.S. Dhillon, ADG (Horticultural Sciences), ICAR, New Delhi.
- Shri S.R. Vishwanath, MLA, Yelahanka Constituency participated in the valedictory function and appreciated the arrangements made for the benefit of farmers.
- All the four days, food was served free of cost to all farmers.
- The NHF-2020 was a great success with more than 70,000 farmers and other stakeholders representing 26 states visiting the fair and getting benefitted from it.
- The impact analysis on the responses of farmers visited NHF-2020 showed that the technical demonstrations were great successes in motivating and creating awareness among farmers for hortienterpreneurship for nursery management, biopesticides and PHT products.
- The farmers very much appreciated the products and technologies displayed in the fair.
- The fair gave an opportunity to all the stakeholders connected with horticulture to see the technologies developed at the institute.
