Chandigarh, Dec 23 – The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr.Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced to set up a Haryana State Agriculture Innovation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs.two crore and an increase of Rs.one crore would be made in this fund every year. The amount for this fund would be made available by Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board and it would be maintained by Dr.R.S.Paroda, Chairman, Haryana Kisan Aayog.
The Chief Minister, who was speaking in the National Workshop on Farmers-Led Innovations organized on the occasion of Kisan Diwas at Hisar today by Ch.Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University and Haryana State Kisan Aayog, said that the birthday of former Prime Minister late Ch.Charan Singh was observed as Kisan Diwas.
Paying rich tributes to Ch.Charan Singh, he said that organizing Farmers-Led Innovations Workshop on the occasion of his birthday was a true tribute to this great leader. He said, “The topic of this national workshop is very relevant. It would provide a platform to the progressive farmers and agricultural scientists to share their views and experiences with each other.”
He said that the progressive farmers along with agriculture scientists of the universities had evolved new agriculture techniques on the basis of their experiences and needs and also developed new agriculture implements. A number of farmers had developed new cost effective technology for storage, processing and packaging of agriculture produce.
Referring to the technology developed by farmer, the Chief Minister said that Mr.Gurnam Singh of village Landa in district Ambala had developed Sugarcane Seed Sets Cutting Tool. Mr.Dharamvir of village Damla in district Yamunanagar had developed Multi-purpose Food Processor, Mr.Jitender Malik of village Seenkh in district Panipat had developed Mushroom Compost Turning Machine and Hole Making Machine. Similarly, Mr.Ram Kishan of village Gudiana in district Yamunanagar had evolved techniques of treating itching of pigs.
He said, “Climate change is also a major concern for us. The abnormal rise in temperature in the month of February and March is serious threat and also adversely effect the wheat production. Today there is a need to adopt such technique that subsidized the effect of increasing temperature so that wheat production could be increased.”
The Chief Minister said, “Maximum utilization of water is in agriculture sector. For water conservation in the agriculture sector, Drip Irrigation and Sprinkler Irrigation techniques should be popularize. With these techniques, maximum area could be irrigated with less water. The farmers should be educated about the judicious use of water in the field. The agriculture scientists should also develop such varieties of crops that need less water for irrigation. Technology to convert saline water into fresh water should also be adopted, he added.”
He said, “Water conservation is on our priority. The year 2011 was observed as ‘Water Conservation Year’. During the year more stress was given on water conservation. For horticulture crops in the State, a subsidy of 90 per cent is given on the Drip Irrigation and Sprinkler sets. Under the National Horticulture Mission, cent per cent subsidy is given on the construction of community ponds. We are trying to adopt the best technology of Israel for water conservation.”
Mr.Hooda said, “There is a lot that needs to be done on Post-Harvest Management and special attention is required for development of food processing industry to augment the income of the farmers. This is the reason that setting up of food processing units is being encouraged.”
He said that a Centre of Excellence had been set up at Gharaunda in Karnal. Another such Centre for fruits was being set up at Sirsa. Both these Indo-Israel Projects had been approved by the Government of India under the National Horticulture Mission.
He said, “Being the son of a farmer, I am sensitive to the problems of the farming community. The concerns of the farmers are of prime importance and keeping their welfare in mind, the draconian law under which farmers were imprisoned for not repaying their loans has been abolished.”
Mr.Hooda said, “Working Group of Chief Ministers constituted under my Chairmanship by the Prime Minister had recommended granting of loan to the farmers at a rate of 4%. The Committee had also recommended that while fixing the Minimum Support Price for agricultural crops, the farmers should get 50% benefit in addition to their cost of production. I hope that the Central Government would agree to these recommendations.”
He said that this two-day workshop would provide an adequate forum to progressive farmers for estabilishing a dialogue with agricultural scientists and experts.