Haryana government giving special incentive to farmers to adopt crop diversification: Khattar

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat’ scheme started from Kharif-2020, the government is providing financial assistance of Rs 7,000 per acre to the farmers for diversifying the paddy crop with alternative crops like maize, cotton, millet, pulses, vegetables and fruits.

“Instead of cultivating traditional crops, it is imperative for the farmers to do modern crops farming which is the need of the hour,” he said.

In Kharif year 2020, crop diversification was adopted by 41,947 farmers in a total area of 63,743 acres and a grant of Rs 45 crore was provided for this. Due to this, a total of 22,565 crore litres of water was saved.

Similarly, in Kharif 2023, alternative crops of the previous year have been included in this year as well and in this scheme, a total target of 1.20 lakh acres has been set under crop diversification, on which a grant amount of about Rs. 84 crore is expected to be spent by the state government.

The total target of this scheme is to save approximately 42,480 crore litres of water. A total of 32,150 farmers have registered their 70,170 acres of crops under this scheme till July 31, 2023.

Khattar said that the state government has implemented the Natural Farming Scheme to protect soil health from degradation and to discourage the use of harmful pesticides. A target of 20,000 acres (16,000 acres agriculture and 4,000 acres horticulture) has been set to encourage natural farming in the year 2023-24.

For this, the government has started a dedicated natural farming portal and till now 9,169 farmers have shown their interest in natural farming by registering on the portal.