Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state of Maharashtra has come up with a plan of promoting agri-businesses. It will have a ₹35 billion (€432 mln) project covering 10,000 villages where the available technology and infrastructure will be used to create export market for fruits. There will also be support from the World Bank.
At the inauguration of the World Orange festival, minister Fadnavis said that the concept of orange estates from Punjab will be replicated in Vidarbha covering Nagpur, Amravati and Wardha districts. The end goal is that the farmers get quality planting material here as well. It will also create all kinds of logistics jobs; grading, packaging, marketing etc.
According to an article on timesofindia.indiatimes.com, Fadnavis also announced a new decision of digitizing the entire 'Crop Cycle Management' of oranges, from sowing to marketing. Imaging from the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre will be used along with artificial intelligence to generate precise information for the framers who will be fed scientific advise through SMS. Information from automatic weather stations will also be used. He said this will make crop forecasting and market forecasting possible and help guide farmers to make best use of their crops.
