CHANDIGARH, MARCH 14
The Haryana Governor, Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki, today said that the state government stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the farmers and had decided to release Rs 967 crore as compensation to those whose crops had been hit by the Whitefly attack. Besides, the state government had disbursed the highest-ever calamity relief compensation of Rs 1,092 crore for damage to crops due to hailstorms and unseasonal rains last year.
He was delivering the Governor’s Address on the first day of the Budget Session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, here today.
Welcoming the announcement of the Union Government to turn the focus in agriculture from food security to income security of farmers, the Governor said that the Haryana Government would take all necessary steps to realise the goal of doubling farm incomes by 2022 to coincide with the platinum jubilee year of the nation’s Independence, as declared by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.
Haryana, which was a food-deficit state on November 1, 1966 when it was carved out of Punjab, has made rapid strides in the field of agriculture production. It has now emerged as the grain bowl of the country. Foodgrain production of 152.36 lakh tonnes was achieved in 2014-15, as compared to 25.92 lakh tonnes in 1966-67, a nearly six-fold increase.
The state contributed about 14.14 per cent of food grain to the Central pool though it constitutes only 1.4 per cent of the country’s total land mass. The foodgrain production for 2015-16 is expected to be 173.44 lakh metric tonnes (MT), comprising 52.33 lakh MT for Kharif and 121.11 lakh MT for Rabi season. The targets of sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds have been fixed at 91.20 lakh MT, 26.76 lakh bales and 11.36 lakh MT, respectively.
The Governor said that timely preparations had been made to ensure adequate availability of fertilisers to the farmers. The consumption of chemical fertilisers in the state was 15 lakh MT during the current financial year against last year’s consumption of 13 lakh MT.
He said that for the first time, private sugar mills in the state were provided financial assistance of Rs 175 crore by the state government to enable them to make payment to the farmers for the sugarcane purchased during the crushing season 2014-15.
The soft loan would be free of interest for the first six months, and would be charged 8.5 per cent rate of interest after that. In case the sugar mill is not able to repay the loan after one year, the loan would be converted into a medium-term loan and interest at the rate of 14.5 per cent would be charged.
The state government has decided to establish the State’s first horticultural university in Karnal with three Regional Research Stations in the villages of Dera near Kala Amb, district Ambala, at Government Garden and Nursery, Jind, and at Bakhtawar-Raiyya, district Jhajjar. The Detailed Project Report is being prepared and the Centre has been requested to release Rs 50 crore as grant-in-aid, the Governor added.
===balbirsingh227@gmail.com
The Haryana Governor, Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki, today said that the state government stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the farmers and had decided to release Rs 967 crore as compensation to those whose crops had been hit by the Whitefly attack. Besides, the state government had disbursed the highest-ever calamity relief compensation of Rs 1,092 crore for damage to crops due to hailstorms and unseasonal rains last year.
He was delivering the Governor’s Address on the first day of the Budget Session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, here today.
Welcoming the announcement of the Union Government to turn the focus in agriculture from food security to income security of farmers, the Governor said that the Haryana Government would take all necessary steps to realise the goal of doubling farm incomes by 2022 to coincide with the platinum jubilee year of the nation’s Independence, as declared by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.
Haryana, which was a food-deficit state on November 1, 1966 when it was carved out of Punjab, has made rapid strides in the field of agriculture production. It has now emerged as the grain bowl of the country. Foodgrain production of 152.36 lakh tonnes was achieved in 2014-15, as compared to 25.92 lakh tonnes in 1966-67, a nearly six-fold increase.
The state contributed about 14.14 per cent of food grain to the Central pool though it constitutes only 1.4 per cent of the country’s total land mass. The foodgrain production for 2015-16 is expected to be 173.44 lakh metric tonnes (MT), comprising 52.33 lakh MT for Kharif and 121.11 lakh MT for Rabi season. The targets of sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds have been fixed at 91.20 lakh MT, 26.76 lakh bales and 11.36 lakh MT, respectively.
The Governor said that timely preparations had been made to ensure adequate availability of fertilisers to the farmers. The consumption of chemical fertilisers in the state was 15 lakh MT during the current financial year against last year’s consumption of 13 lakh MT.
He said that for the first time, private sugar mills in the state were provided financial assistance of Rs 175 crore by the state government to enable them to make payment to the farmers for the sugarcane purchased during the crushing season 2014-15.
The soft loan would be free of interest for the first six months, and would be charged 8.5 per cent rate of interest after that. In case the sugar mill is not able to repay the loan after one year, the loan would be converted into a medium-term loan and interest at the rate of 14.5 per cent would be charged.
The state government has decided to establish the State’s first horticultural university in Karnal with three Regional Research Stations in the villages of Dera near Kala Amb, district Ambala, at Government Garden and Nursery, Jind, and at Bakhtawar-Raiyya, district Jhajjar. The Detailed Project Report is being prepared and the Centre has been requested to release Rs 50 crore as grant-in-aid, the Governor added.
===balbirsingh227@gmail.com
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