Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has announced a new initiative on vegetable clusters for farmers. While presenting the Union Budget for 2011-12 in the Lok Sabha today, Shri Mukherjee stated that the growing demand for vegetables has to be met by a robust increase in the productivity and market linkage. To achieve this objective, an efficient supply chain to provide quality vegetables at competitive prices will have to be established, he added.

Shri Mukherjee proposed to provide an amount of Rs. 300 crore for implementation of vegetable initiative to set in motion a virtuous cycle of higher production and incomes for the farmers. The Finance Minister further announced that this programme would be launched near major urban centres initially.

Vegetable cluster initiative to strengthen supply chains and market linkages, supporting farmer productivity and incomes near urban centres. The Vegetable Cluster Initiative aims to strengthen supply chains and market linkages for vegetables to raise productivity, ensure quality produce at competitive prices, and increase farmer incomes through integrated cluster formation, improved post-harvest handling, aggregation, logistics and market access, with initial implementation focused near major urban centres and supported by a targeted budgetary provision.