pib releases 01-06-2021

PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU (PIB)

Paper	Topics	Subject
GS-III	Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP)	Economic Issues
GS-III	IIT Ropar developed AmbiTag	Economic Issues

GS-III : Economic Issues

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Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP)

In a pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme.
A central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
The programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
The programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme.
CDP will benefit about 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain.
With this programme, we aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by approx. 20% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.
The clusters of the pilot phase include Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (H.P.) for Apple, Lucknow (U.P.), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango, Anantpur (A.P.) and Theni (T.N.) for Banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes, Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for Turmeric.
These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.
The programme is expected to converge with other initiatives of the Government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund which is a medium - long-term financing facility for investment in projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets and will leverage the central sector scheme of the Ministry for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs).

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Economic Issues

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IIT Ropar developed AmbiTag

Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT Ropar) in Punjab has developed a first-of-its-kind IoT device – AmbiTag that records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines and even body organs and blood.
That recorded temperature further helps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation.
This information is particularly critical for vaccines including Covid-19 vaccine, organs and blood transportation.
Shaped as USB device, AmbiTag continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings “from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge.
Most of the similar devices available in the international market record data only for duration of 30- 60 days.
It generates an alert when the temperature goes beyond a pre-set limit. The recorded data can be retrieved by connecting the USB with any computer.
The device has been developed under Technology Innovation Hub – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) and its Startup ScratchNest.
AWaDH is a Govt of India project. Prof. Kumar said that the device is certified with ISO 13485:2016, EN 12830:2018, CE & ROHS.
Besides perishable items including vegetables, meat and dairy products it can also monitor the temperature of animal semen during transit.
So far, such devices are being imported by India in a massive quantity from other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, and China.