HP’s rural economy gets big boost: CM

Shimla: With a series of interventions and a new set of incentives, Himachal Pradesh proposes to promote the state’s natural farming sector as a key driver of the rural economy in the hill state, which will lead to employment and sustainable growth.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, after returning from New Delhi, said here that agriculture continues to be the backbone of the state, with nearly 90 per cent of the population residing in rural areas and about 53.95 per cent directly dependent on farming and allied activities.

He said that strengthening the rural economy was the foremost priority of the present state government and that, for the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh, a series of bold and decisive steps had been taken to ensure the economic empowerment of farmers and rural households.

These include the introduction of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for produce grown through natural farming, the notification of the Universal Carton for apples to protect the interests of horticulturists, targeted subsidy schemes for rural areas and the innovative initiative of purchasing cow dung to provide additional income to farmers. Against this backdrop, the state government has set an ambitious target of bringing 9.61 lakh farmer families under the ambit of natural farming, which reaffirms its strong commitment to transforming the rural economy and securing a sustainable livelihood for farmers across the state.

Sukhu noted that Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country to fix minimum support prices for produce grown through natural farming.

The government has now enhanced the MSP for naturally grown maize and wheat from Rs 30 and Rs 40 per kilogram to Rs 40 and Rs 60, respectively. Support prices have also been fixed at Rs 90 per kilogram for raw turmeric and Rs 60 per kilogram for barley grown in the Pangi Valley, along with a substantial increase in fruit support prices.

The government has identified natural farming as a transformative instrument to enhance farm incomes, ensure ecological balance, and promote long-term sustainability.