Urging the Union government to promote natural farming in the country, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday informed the NITI Aayog that the Haryana government has been taking steps to encourage farmers to switch from chemical farming to natural farming.
“Several schemes are being run by the state government to promote natural farming. We are shifting from chemical farming to natural farming as a result of which so far 2,804 farmers have been registered on the natural farming portal,” said Khattar urging the Central government to promote natural farming in the country during the 7th meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.
The chief minister said that the state government is completely focused on promoting natural farming in the state and that farmers should also be encouraged for the same.
He said despite being a small state Haryana has made a significant contribution to the country’s economy. He said the per capita income of Haryana is ?2,74,635, which is the highest among the major states of India. Haryana is also included in the leading states of the country on the parameters of economic development, said Khattar.
The chief minister said since 2015-16 to 2020-21, state’s growth rate has been continuously recorded as more than 6 per cent, while Haryana’s manufacturing growth rate is 10 per cent, which is the highest in the country.
While referring to the agenda points of the meeting, the chief minister said that Haryana contributes about 15 per cent to the ‘Central pool of foodgrains’, even as the geographical area of the state is only 1.34 per cent of the country.
“Our agricultural growth rate is about 3.3 per cent per annum and the state’s growth rate is about 8.7 per cent,” he said, pointing out that these figures clearly indicate that the income of the farmer of the state is constantly increasing.
The share of horticulture and animal husbandry is increasing in the agriculture sector, said Khattar, adding the use of the latest technology and crop diversification is being promoted in the state.
The chief minister said an incentive of ?7,000 per acre is given to the farmers who grow these crops in place of paddy under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat’ scheme. He said an incentive amount of ?76 crore has been deposited in the accounts of 74,133 farmers through DBT.
Under this scheme, an area of 46,249 hectares has been diversified in the last two years. An incentive of ?10,000 per hectare is being given for the cultivation of pulses and oilseeds in place of millet (bajra). Also, crop diversification has been adopted in an area of 62,500 acres for maize and 32,500 acres for pulses. An incentive of ?10,000 per hectare is also being given to the farmers who sow paddy through direct-seeded rice (DSR) technique. This saves about 25 to 30 per cent of water, said Khattar.
The chief minister said that Haryana ranks second in the country in terms of per capita availability of milk per day. ‘Pashu Kisan Credit Card Scheme’ is being issued on the lines of ‘Kisan Credit Card’. He further informed that around 3.40 lakh animals have been insured under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Pashudhan Suraksha Yojana’.
“There is a lot of scope in fisheries, hence we have established 12 re-circulatory aqua culture systems and 20 biofloc units in Haryana. In the year 2021-22, over 2 lakh metric tonnes of fish have been produced in the state. The target is to increase it to 2.10 MT in 2022-23,” said Khattar.
Source: HT