Govt claims: Hry ahead of 'elder brother' Pb in agri despite lesser land

Chandigarh: Due to policies adopted by Manohar Lal Khattar and efforts of the farmers, the State despite having a small geographical spread, has moved ahead of its 'elder brother' Punjab in agriculture development, the state government on Friday claimed.

The state of Punjab undoubtedly has a wider spread than Haryana in terms of total area and cultivable land, however, the bold decisions taken by the present government under the dynamic leadership of the CM Khattar in the last seven years to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 21 fruits and vegetables and 11 crops and then to procure them has paid off, in comparison to which Punjab stands nowhere close to the State with regard to Agriculture.

Not only this, beneficial schemes starting from incentive scheme launched to promote crop diversification to schemes like Fasal Bima Yojana implemented to give compensation to the farmers for crop loss have definitely infused fresh energy among the farmers of the State.

Agriculture is considered to be the economic backbone of this country. According to the agricultural luminaries, Haryana has gone much ahead in the field of agriculture-business in the last 7 years, the spokesperson said quoting agriculture experts.

While the total geographical area of Haryana is 44,212 square kilometer, the state of Punjab is spread across 50,362 square kilometer. Similarly, the cultivable land in

Haryana is 37.41 lakh hectare and that of Punjab is 42 lakh hectare.

In terms of agricultural growth also, Haryana's rate is 6.3 per cent and Punjab's rate is one-third of Haryana's that is only 2.1 percent.

For sugarcane growing farmers, the State Government has set up 11 sugar mills in the State, on the other hand, the total number of sugar mills in Punjab is 15, but only 9 mills are in working condition and the remaining 6 mills are lying closed.

In Haryana, 11 crops including, wheat, barley, gram, sunflower, mustard, paddy, moong, maize, millet, cotton and groundnut, are purchased at the Minimum Support Price, while in Punjab only three crops namely wheat, paddy and sunflower

are procured at Minimum Support Price.

The 'Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana', which has been started in Haryana to reserve the price of 21 types of fruits and vegetables, is being discussed among the farmers of the whole country. There is no scheme like Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana in Punjab.