Chandigarh, June 26 - Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal has taken another initiative in the direction of making India self-reliant as per Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi’s vision to promote natural farming in the state, by announcing subsidy of up to Rs. 25,000 on the purchase of indigenous cow and to provide four big drums to the farmers to prepare the solution of Jeevamrut for natural farming free of cost. Haryana will be the first state in the country to do so.
The Chief Minister said that the basic objective of natural farming is to change the eating habits, for this we have to adopt the concept of food and medicine. Natural farming is the only way out. A target has been set to promote natural farming on 50,000 acres of land in the state and in order to make people aware about it, an exhibition of natural farming will be done in every block.
The Chief Minister was speaking as the Chief Guest at the state level review meeting on natural farming organized at Dr. Mangal Sain Auditorium Hall in Karnal today. The Chief Minister interacted directly with agriculture experts and gave tips to increase natural farming.
The Chief Minister said that farmers having 2 to 5 acres of land registered on the portal and who voluntarily adopt natural farming, will be provided 50 per cent subsidy for purchasing indigenous cows.
The Chief Minister, while addressing the Technical Assistant Managers, Block Technical Assistant Managers and the farmers present associated with the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (AATMA) of the Central Government, said that Atma Yojana of Agriculture Department will fix the poisonous food grains being produced in our fields due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers. There He said that Sikkim is the first state in the country which has moved completely to natural farming. A lot of work is also being done in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, now Haryana Government will take a new initiative to give subsidy on the purchase of indigenous cow.
The Chief Minister said that he is glad that farmers are now understanding natural farming and so far 1,253 farmers of the state have registered themselves voluntarily for adopting natural farming on the portal created by the Agriculture Department. The Chief Minister said that there was a time when there was a shortage of food grains in the country in the 1960s, for this a call for Green Revolution was given, due to which there was indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and there was no shortage of food grains in the country. Now due to the use of chemical fertilizers, the fields have also become poisonous and the production of food grains has also become poisonous. We should take a pledge that we will neither sow poison nor eat poison.
The Chief Minister said that today's topic is heart touching. As Finance Minister, when he reviews the budget of various departments, somewhere his thinking changes at the time of budget allocation of the Health Department that if our food and drink are right, then the health department will not need much budget for infrastructure and other medicines. He said that if we get sick then we go to get medicine and now natural farming is with us as an alternative to medicine, we have to adopt it as a part of our lives. For adopting natural farming, the Haryana government will also give more than what it will get from the Center.
Directly interacting with ATMs and BTMs, it came to the notice of the Chief Minister that monthly honorarium has not been received for the last 6-7 months. Chief Minister immediately directed the Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance Department over the phone that the honorarium should be released with immediate effect. He said that he does not want the salary of any employee to be delayed and that even the salary of the village watchman and sanitation worker is released by 7th of every month.
In a direct interaction during the programme, the Chief Minister said that a portal will be made for the farmers to set up a demonstration plant of natural farming. Along with giving complete information about the land on this portal, farmers will give information about adopting crop diversification voluntarily. Apart from this, it will also give information about growing pulses in food grains. In this way, if the department will have complete information, then monitoring can be done easily. He said that training should be given to farmers in small groups of 20-25 so that they can get information about crop production in a better way. Such a scheme will also be prepared so that the customers in the market do not have doubts about whether it is a product of natural farming or not.
He said that expensive equipments are available in the market to get the information about testing of natural products.
Progressive farmers will now be called natural farmers
The Chief Minister said that a demonstration plant must be made in every block so that the farmers of that block can easily take advantage of it. More than 50 progressive farmers should be trained at the block level. In this way, more and more progressive farmers can be prepared across the state. He said that progressive farmers will now be called natural farmers, because natural farming has to be done according to the laws of nature, from which we had turned away in the past. He lauded the Gujarat Governor, Sh. Acharya Devvrat, who has presented the draft of natural farming to the Prime Minister, and provided land for the Natural Farming Training Institute at Gurukul Kurukshetra. So far 232 ATMs, BTMs and farmers have taken training in natural farming. Now these people will go to the farmers and train them for natural farming. He said that if there is a need to increase manpower and budget for this, then the government will fulfill it.
700 Agriculture Development Officers will be recruited- Sh. JP Dalal
Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, Sh. JP Dalal in his address said that the Chief Minister always thinks about the interest of farmers and how the farmers of the state should be prosperous, capable and move ahead. He said that today's programme has also become possible due to the inspiration of the Chief Minister and this is an innovation of new schemes of the department and this department will work dedicatedly for the farmers. He said that by adopting natural method, the income of the farmers will increase.
He said that the government has implemented schemes like Mera Pani-Meri Virasat to save water and Bhavantar Bharpayee for farmers to get full price for their produce. Rs. 450 crore has been given to the farmers under this. Apart from this, a provision has been made to give incentive amount of Rs. 6,000 per acre to reduce the sowing of paddy crop. Schemes have also been implemented to make farmers risk free. Now the emphasis will be on production of food grains, fruits and vegetables in a natural way.
On this occasion, Director General, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, Dr. Hardeep Singh, and Director General, Horticulture Department, Dr. Arjun Saini, also apprised about the departmental activities. On this occasion, Indri MLA, Sh. Ramkumar Kashyap, Gharaunda MLA, Sh. Harvinder Kalyan, Mayor, Smt. Renu Bala Gupta, Deputy Commissioner, Sh. Anish Yadav, along with senior officers and officials were present.