Meena Devi expressed optimism on the Himachal Pradesh authorities’s Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojana, which began final week for procuring maize produced through pure farming by the state authorities.
“I began pure farming on 3 bighas of my 7-bigha land in 2019. Since then, I’ve been rising numerous greens and grains, together with carrots, beetroots, radishes, wheat, and maize. Nonetheless, that is the primary time the state authorities has determined to obtain one of many crops grown by pure strategies at a hard and fast worth. It’s an excellent initiative, however I hope this scheme is prolonged to all crops grown naturally,” Meena Devi, a resident of Jarol village in Sundarnagar, Mandi district, informed The Indian Categorical.
Chaman Lal, who’s from Padol village in Sirmaur district, in his 5 bighas of land that’s cultivable switched to pure farming in 2018 after attending a seminar.
“In 2018, I switched to pure farming after attending a seminar organised by the state agriculture division in Kufri, Shimla. Amongst different crops and fruits, I develop maize. Within the open market, I used to get a most worth of Rs 22–Rs 24 per kg for maize grown naturally. Nonetheless, that is the primary time the state authorities is procuring maize at Rs 30 per kg, which quantities to Rs 3,000 per quintal. The scheme needs to be prolonged to different crops additionally,” he mentioned.
Meena Devi and Chaman Lal, practising pure farming tons of of kilometres aside, are among the many roughly 1.40 lakh farmers within the state adopting pure farming. Of those, 3,218 farmers have registered to promote their maize to the federal government on the official price of Rs 3,000 per quintal for the primary time. Whereas Meena Devi has provided 3 quintals of maize to the federal government mandi, Chaman Lal plans to promote 8 quintals.
Dr Mahender Bhawani, Deputy Director, Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y), informed this correspondent that the idea of pure farming was launched within the state in 2018, making a number of farmers swap to pure methodology, however the authorities had not beforehand set a procurement worth for any of the crops grown naturally.
“This yr, the value was mounted for maize at Rs 3,000 per quintal. Maize is likely one of the most generally grown grains within the state, and we invited farmers to promote their surplus maize to the federal government. Thus far, 3,218 pure farmers have registered with us, committing to promote roughly 508.9 metric tons (MT) of maize. The procurement course of has now begun,” Bhawani added.
He additional mentioned that for the following yr, wheat grown by pure farming will fall into the ambit of procurement on mounted worth from the farmers. Efforts are on to achieve a hard and fast worth of the wheat per quintal, Bhawani added.
The very best procurement is anticipated from Solan district, the place 1,128 pure farmers have registered to promote 140 MT of maize. Sirmaur district follows with 132.94 MT from 434 farmers, and Chamba district with 83.165 MT from 357 farmers. The procurement course of has already begun in Kangra, Mandi, and Chamba districts.
Below the PK3Y initiative, the Himachal authorities additionally gives subsidies on sure issues together with for desi cow whose dung is used for making the compost thought of to be wealthy in vitamins like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and may help enhance soil construction, aeration, and water infiltration. The federal government gives a subsidy of Rs 25,000 on the acquisition of a desi cow which prices between Rs 55,000 and Rs 65,000.
The state authorities has procured 100.85 MT maize from the farmers within the final three days in the course of the first part of the procurement. This procurement has been performed in seven districts: Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur, Solan and Una. The procurement below part 2 of the venture can be began in November. The Himachal authorities is anticipating the procurement of 508.9 MT maize.
