Kerala is opening up big opportunities for youngsters, farmers’ groups, self-help groups, and startups to get into high-tech farming utilising the large tracts of cultivable land belonging to the government. A flagship project “NAWO-DHAN” (New Agriculture Wealth Opportunities – Driving Horticulture and Agribusiness Networking) is being rolled out by the Kerala Government to make use of huge land reserves of the government to promote high-tech farming and generate equal employment opportunities for people in the state.
Agriculture Department Special Secretary Prasanth N has taken to LinkedIn to announce the Kerala government’s most ambitious project aimed at revolutionising the farming sector in the state. “We are excited to move one step ahead with the NAWO-DHAN project, an ambitious initiative aimed at transforming agriculture in Kerala! This project seeks to revitalise fallow and underutilised lands by introducing high-tech and high-value cropping,” he said in a post.
(The government order)
As per the details shared by him, unutilised cultivable land owned by various government departments and Public Sector Undertakings can be selected for implementing the project in the initial phase. A Government Order shared by him states that land with basic infrastructure shall be apportioned as multiples of blocks of 10 acres each and can be made available to farmers for commercial cultivation of high-value crops, adopting a process similar to resource allocation in an IT Park. Under the project, the government will ensure that the farmers’ groups and startups who are coming forward to partner with the government in this project receive technical support, subsidies, professional guidance, and crop insurance, etc.
“Kerala Agro Business Company (KABCO) is assigned as the Special Purpose Vehicle for the implementation of the NAWO-DHAN project under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture. KABCO shall liaise with various stakeholders to identify the cultivable land available with various departments, farms, State and Central PSUs, private individuals, and institutions and act as an aggregator for developing the land into hi-tech agricultural farms of various sizes. Farmer groups shall be engaged for cultivation through Service Level Agreements (SLA) treating “Farming as a Service,” and no transfer of any interest in land concerned is required. KABCO shall develop forward linkages, including export-market integration. KABCO will focus on business-intelligence-driven cropping, ensuring that production is sufficiently diversified and is in line with market demand,” the order said.
The details say that 1,03,334 hectares of fallow land is available in the state, of which 53,914 Ha is classified as current fallow and 49,420 Ha as permanent fallow. The project is aimed at increasing the production of vegetables in Kerala, which actually requires 30 lakh Metric Tonnes (MT) per year. The current production is only 17.24 lakh MT per year while the balance of 13.76 lakh MT is met from neighbouring states.
