2209 panchayats covered under Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana
Shimla: The Himachal Government is propagating to adopt Organic/Zero Budget Natural Farming since long and now claiming that 15,391 farmers have started practising natural farming in their fields.
In a meeting of the State Level Task Force for Promotion of Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana, it’s claimed that under the scheme as many as 20,579 farmers have so far been trained. And further targeting of training 50,000 farmers during the current year.
Task Force has also claimed of bringing 2209 panchayats under the ambitious Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana, which was rolled out in Sept 2018 only. The state has a total of 3226 panchayats.
Chief Secretary Dr. Shrikant Baldi, in a meeting, revealed that during the year 2019-20, out of a total allocation of Rs. 19.03 crore, an amount of Rs. 14.36 crore has been allocated to all the districts for different activities.
In the meeting, approval was given to allow a master trainer to hold maximum of 5 pieces of training sessions per month till March 2020 to enhance the quality of training. Approval was also given to give an additional amount of Rs. 2500 per month for Block Technology Manager and Assistant Technology Manager recruited under Agricultural Technology Management Agency on performance basis till March 2020.
Dr. Baldi said that horticulture has an important role to play in adopting natural farming in the State by farmers. He suggested preparing a list of packages of practices on different crops under natural farming for farmers, besides refresher training for trained farmers to get the actual feedback.
Principal Secretary Agriculture Onkar Chand Sharma, State Project Director Zero Budget Natural Farming Rakesh Kanwar, Director Agriculture Dr. R.K. Koundal, Director Horticulture Dr. M.L. Dhiman, Director Animal Husbandry Dr. Swadesh Kumar Chaudhary, representatives of Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry Nauni, Solan and Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University Palampur, Kangra and other senior officers were also present in the meeting.
