Saturday, June 10, 2017

Haryana prepares 15.73 lakh Soil Health cards

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 10
 In Haryana, 15.73 lakh Soil Health Cards have so far been prepared to prevent unnecessary use of fertilisers. Besides, clusters in 20 development blocks of 11 districts of the State have been selected to promote certified organic farming linked with gaushalas.
        While stating this here today, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, said that as a result of effective extension activities, consumption of urea had reduced by ten per cent in Kharif-2016 and six per cent in Rabi 2016-17, as compared to last season. 
        He said that the State Government had adopted a multi-pronged strategy and accelerated its targets for different sectors to achieve the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022, which requires annual growth of 10.41 per cent in the income of the farmers.
He said that the State Government was aiming to ensure increase in agricultural and allied sector productivity through crop diversity and peri-urban farming. Among the High Value Crops (HVC), annual growth of 14.1 per cent in cotton, two per cent in sugarcane, 4.2 per cent in fruits, 5.7 per cent in vegetables, 3.5 per cent in animal husbandry and 12 per cent in fisheries has been envisaged by 2022. Target has been set to increase productivity of fibre crop cotton from 0.274 metric tonnes per hectare to 0.693 metric tonnes per hectare, and of sugarcane from 75.18 metric tonnes per hectare to 86.30 metric tonnes per hectare.
The Haryana Government has set a target to increase productivity in horticulture from 16.54 metric tonnes per hectare to 22.00 metric tonnes per hectare in fruits, and 14.99 metric tonnes per hectare to 22 metric tonnes per hectare in vegetables, with annual production growth rate of 11 per cent with the target to double the production from current level of 70.24 lakh metric tonnes to 139.23 lakh metric tonnes by 2022. The State is also setting up its first Horticulture University.
The Government is also endeavouring to increase overall milk production from 83.81 lakh tonnes to 112 lakh tonnes with annual increase of five per cent of production. Emphasis is being laid on preservation and conservation of indigenous cattle breed to increase per capita per day availability of milk from 835 grams to 1,050 grams by 2022.    
Dr. Likhi said that Haryana ranked second in the country in terms of fish productivity. The State Government has set a target to increase fish production from 1.21 lakh metric tonnes to 8.23 lakh metric tonnes by increasing fish productivity from 6.8 metric tonnes to 15 metric tonnes per year per hectare by 2022. Fish seed production would increase from 6,400 lakh to 21,800 lakh with increase in area from 17,800 hectares to 54,500 hectares. Haryana has been declared as disease-free state in fish culture by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and is the first State to utilise inland saline water for shrimp culture in the land-locked areas.
Haryana Government has also launched Crop Cluster Development Programme with an investment of Rs 510 crore to promote aggregation of produce and organised marketing through 71 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). 
Referring to steps being taken for judicious use of resources, Dr. Likhi said that micro-irrigation would be intensified in identified 36 over-exploited, critical and semi-critical development blocks through sprinkler or drip, underground pipe line (UGPL) and watershed projects. The area under this is targeted to increase from 6.9 lakh hectares to 9.50 lakh hectares by 2022 to cover 26.57 per cent of cultivable area with annual growth rate of 4.7 per cent. Besides, a Rs 22-crore project to develop 250 Climate Smart Villages in the State has been taken up to address the issue of climate smart agriculture. 
The Haryana Government has also introduced reforms in marketing sector by amending the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act, under which e-trading has been started through e-NAM Portal in 54 mandis in the State with a turnover of more than Rs 8,000 crore. Unrestricted trading through single trading license has been allowed and further single levy of market fees is under active consideration. Farmer Producer Organisations have been exempted from licence for selling their agricultural produce and farmers markets are being established in various mandis of the State. Besides, contract farming has been allowed and liberalised in the State, he added.
Under risk management, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is being implemented from Kharif-2016, and this scheme has covered 85 per cent of the gross cropped area and more than 95 per cent of area covered under agricultural crops namely wheat, paddy, cotton, mustard, bajra, maize, barley and gram.  
With a view to impart skills and modern techniques to farmers, the Haryana Government organised the 2nd Agri Leadership Summit from March 18 to 20, 2017 in Faridabad for recognition, facilitation and incubation of farmer leaders. More than one lakh farmers participated in this event. The Government has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) under National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and identified eight centres to provide sector-specific skills in the field of agriculture and horticulture. 
Dr. Likhi said that research and development was being carried out on a continuous basis and the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University had released a large number of good varieties which have substantial potential with possibility of increase in productivity of 30 per cent in wheat, 65 per cent in maize, 45 per cent in bajra and 108 per cent in gram.
The University has recommended zero-tillage sowing of wheat, direct seeding of rice and soil test-based nutrient management.  It has also developed integrated farmer system (IFS) model and a cow-centric IFS model which has potential to increase net income of Rs 2,21,199 per hectare, he added.

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