Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation (Horticorp) is a fully owned Government Company under the Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala. Horticorp has many roles like of procurement, processing, storage and marketing of Horticultural products throughout the State and they encourage farmers in the state to produce more vegetables and also prevent unreasonable price hikes.
The demand for good quality fruits and vegetables is increasing day by day. The increase in population, as well as growing awareness among the people about the importance of quality vegetables in the diet, has contributed to this increased demand for vegetables. People are more concerned about chemical-free vegetables and its adverse impacts on the environment and human.
Horticorp at present is involved in delivering fruit packs to the brave hearts and front line warriors fighting and helping the public and government in the battle against COVID-19. The present interventions of Government agencies help them in procuring vegetables directly from the farmers. Kerala has succeeded in buying directly from the farmers and empower the farmers and help them to market their produce in an organized manner at the time of this crisis.
The fruit kits are being assembled by the Kudumbashree units. There are many voluntary organizations also participating in buying fruits directly and making fruit kits available to the warriors participating in the front line defense against Corona . This program was started by the State Agriculture Minister Mr Sunil Kumar and around 7000 kits were prepared and distributed. Hope this kind of initiatives are being followed by other states and the farmers are being helped by the government at the time of crisis like these .