Chandigarh, April 26: Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal has appealed to the farmers to cultivate alternative crops instead of paddy for water conservation, like they did last year in about 1.5 lakh acres of paddy area. Also, in areas where alternative crops other than paddy are not cultivated, farmers should sow paddy by DSR method, which saves about 50 percent water.
The Chief Minister was speaking at the concluding session of the first day of the ‘Water Conclave’ under Amrit Jal Kranti, organized by the Haryana Water Resources Authority at Panchkula today.
Meanwhile to make farmers aware about water conservation, the Chief Minister said that for this, IEC activities should be carried out in full swing. Along with spreading awareness, the state government is also giving incentives to the farmers under various schemes, he added.
He said that Haryana is the state which buys maximum crops on MSP in the country. “Instead of paddy, the farmers should adopt sowing of crops that use less water like millet, cotton, maize etc. We will not allow farmers to face any difficulty in marketing other crops,” said the Chief Minister.
State government will provide land for preparing demonstrating farm for natural farming
The Chief Minister said that if any institution or any government organization also comes forward to prepare demonstrating farm of natural farming in Haryana, then the state government will provide them land for preparing 50 or 100 demonstrating farms. “The organization will do natural farming by adopting various measures like use of micro-irrigation, less use of pesticides, cultivation of less water consuming crops. These demonstrating farms will be shown to the farmers, so that they can be motivated towards adopting natural farming,” he said.
He said that even after combining drinking water and other uses, the consumption of water is more in irrigation. “In Haryana, 80 lakh acres of land is cultivable and if two crops are taken on an average and water is applied three times on an average, then 24 MAF water is required for irrigation. Apart from saving water, the second need today is to increase the use of water by recycling it,” said Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that the state government is giving an incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre to farmers for cultivation of other crops instead of paddy under Mera Pani-Meri Virasat. “This scheme has to be further strengthened. Universities should conduct research in this direction and experts related to horticulture should also suggest to save water consumed in irrigation,” he added.
Government considering to link millets with PDS
Sh. Manohar Lal said that in order to promote coarse grains, permission was taken for the supply of millet at the depot through PDS for three months. “We are also considering to add maize to the PDS. Besides, universities should conduct research on which crops can be grown in maximum quantity in the state among coarse grain crops,” he added.
Practice of worshiping ponds should be started for water storage
The Chief Minister said that earlier water was collected through ponds in the villages and their use was also ensured, while in today's time the use of water from ponds is decreasing. “To promote this, the practice of worshiping pond should be started. The ponds should be worshiped in the villages on one day in a year or on any special day. This will bring a sense of purity and there will be accumulation of water,” he added.
Formulate new scheme after analysing suggestions received in Water Conclave
During the concluding session, various suggestions were given by the experts to save water and reduce the consumption of water in irrigation, which included promotion of mobile solar system for solar tubewells, sowing of paddy through DSR method and technical strengthening of the Ranney Well scheme. The Chief Minister directed the officials to formulate a new scheme after analysing the suggestions in detail and set up a pilot project.
Various schemes implemented by state government for water conservation in the last 8 years
Interacting with the mediapersons, the Chief Minister said that in the last 8 years, various schemes have been implemented by the state government for water conservation, which have been appreciated by Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi and other organizations from time to time.
He said that Western Jamuna Canal has been strengthened at a cost of about Rs 2,500 crore, work of which would be completed by next year. This will also save water and the availability of water will also increase, he added.
On the occasion, Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta, MP Sh. Dharambir Singh, MLA Dr. Abhe Singh Yadav, Chief Secretary, Sh. Sanjeev Kaushal, Chairperson, Haryana Water Resources Authority, Smt. Keshni Anand Arora, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. DS Dhesi, Advisor to Chief Minister (Irrigation), Sh. Devender Singh and administrative secretaries of ten departments and other officers were present.