DW BUREAU / chandigarh The incredible achievements made by Haryana in the Agriculture and Horticulture sector have yet again been recognized at the national level as both the departments have bagged SKOCH GOLD Award for their respective remarkable achievements in Soil Health Card and Crop Cluster Development Programme. Giving information in this regard, an official spokesperson said that the award was received on behalf of Haryana by Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, Dr Sumita Misra, and Director General, Horticulture Department, Arjun Saini in New Delhi. He said that under the leadership of Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal and guidance of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Sh. JP Dalal, Haryana is continuously setting new dimensions in the agriculture and horticulture sector. The state government is making efforts towards increasing the profit and income of the farmers through diversification. Haryana, the second largest contributor of food grains to the national pool, has taken many policy initiatives for diversification towards horticulture and promotion of agri-business. Haryana has mapped around 400 horticulture crop clusters and formed 700 Farmer Producer Organizations. To strengthen the backward and forward linkages in the clusters, the State has launched an ambitious Scheme ? "Crop Cluster Development Program (CCDP)" with an outlay of Rs. 510.35 crore for establishing on-farm Integrated Pack-Houses through FPOs. So far, 33 integrated pack-houses have been established and 35 are under progress. By the end of the current financial year, a total of 100 such integrated pack-houses are targeted to be established. Further, to ensure end to the end value chain for farmers and farm produce, a total of 37 Agri Sector Companies have executed 54 MoU with 34 FPOs for trading and marketing of FPOs produce with a buy-back mechanism to boost agri-business activities. In a short span of 10 months trading of 13400 MT horticulture commodities valuing more than Rs. 14 crores have been materialized and are expected to rise to over Rs 200 crore. The CCDP was launched to resolve several issues including aggregation of produce: Cluster formation, Farmers groups and market linkages like Pack-houses, Collection centres, Grading ? packing and standards. Besides this, it also aims to resolve sanitary and phytosanitary measures including issues of pesticide residues, and microbiological contamination including pests, diseases, aflatoxins, and heavy metals. Market access issues like legitimate barriers to trade: Domestic and export including national and international standards like IPPC. (editor@dailyworld.in)