Crop diversification is the future of farmers – Haryana Chief Minister

New Delhi – Instead of cultivating traditional crops, it is imperative for the farmers to do modern crops farming which is the need of the hour. This will not only enhance their income but will also ensure protection of the environment. The farmer's future centres around crop diversity. In this direction, the state government took a new initiative and started its ambitious Mera Pani-Meri Virasat Scheme, under which the key objective is to ensure water conservation while crop diversification. This scheme is proving to be very effective and considering its success, a target of saving 42,480 crore litres of water has been set for the year 2023-24.

Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal, through a press release issued in Chandigarh, said that under the Mera Pani-Meri Virasat scheme started from Kharif-2020, the government is providing financial assistance of Rs. 7,000 per acre to the farmers for diversifying the paddy crop with alternative crops like maize, cotton, millet, pulses, vegetables and fruits. In Kharif year 2020, crop diversification was adopted by 41,947 farmers in a total area of 63,743 acres and a grant of Rs. 45 crore was provided for this. Due to this, a total of 22,565 crore litres of water was saved. Similarly, in Kharif 2023, alternative crops of the previous year have been included in this year as well and in this scheme, a total target of 1.20 lakh acres has been set under crop diversification, on which a grant amount of about Rs. 84 crore is expected to be spent by the state government. The total target of this scheme is to save approximately 42,480 crore litres of water. Till July 31, 2023, a total of 32,150 farmers have registered their 70,170 acres of crops under this scheme.

Government's robust efforts to foster natural farming

Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government has implemented the Natural Farming Scheme to protect soil health from degradation and to discourage the use of harmful pesticides. A target of 20,000 acres (16,000 acres agriculture and 4,000 acres horticulture) has been set to encourage natural farming in the year 2023-24. For this, the government has started a dedicated natural farming portal and till now 9,169 farmers have shown their interest in natural farming by registering on the portal. Under this scheme, an assistance of Rs. 3000 will be provided for purchasing 4 drums to a farmer to prepare a natural fertiliser produced by mixing cow’s dung and urine and Rs. 25,000 will be provided for the purchase of indigenous cows and a provision has been made to give incentive amount on branding and packaging of natural farming products.

The chief minister emphasized that aside from the cultivation of traditional crops in the agriculture sector, transitioning towards horticulture crops is equally important. Recognizing this, the state government is making dedicated efforts to motivate farmers to embrace horticulture crops instead of traditional ones.

It is noteworthy that NFTI, Gurukul Kurukshetra is already imparting natural farming training in the state and the training has started from April 15, 2023 at Natural Farming Horticulture Training Centre Mangiana, Sirsa. Till now, the Agriculture Department has given training to 9,238 participants (129 progressive farmers, 611 young farmers, 362 women farmers, 6234 Sarpanch and Ex-Sarpanch, 294 horticulture farmers, 1,608 officers and farmers of State/Other States etc.

Apart from this, he said that with the aim of promoting water conservation, the government has also started the scheme of direct sowing of paddy. Under this, demonstration plants will be set up to promote direct sowing of paddy Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) in 12 districts of the state, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Panipat, Jind, Sonipat, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Hisar and Rohtak. There is a provision to give an incentive amount of Rs. 4,000 per acre to verified farmers. Physical verification of 72,900 acres was done in the year 2022-23. Under this, Rs 29.16 crore has been allocated to the farmers. Apart from this, a target of 2 lakh acres has been set for Kharif 2023.

Today, farmers of the state are abandoning traditional farming and adopting natural and crop diversification on a large scale. This has ensured that farmers get more income and better prices at lower costs. Due to which there is qualitative improvement in the economic condition of the farmers.

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