Shimla: The State Government is aiming to cover 9.61 lakh families of farmers of the State under natural farming by the year 2022.
State CM Jai Ram Thakur, in a Apex State Level Committee for monitoring of Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojna here today, said that natural farming was a complete paradigm shift from traditional farming which involves various cropping inputs.
He said that continuous use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers have increased the yield of crops but has trigged negative impact on soil as well as environment. He said that natural farming emphasis on natural growth of various crops without use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Chief Minister said that State Government had set a target of covering 50 thousand families under natural farming in the State during the year 2019 but succeeded in covering about 55 thousand families. He said that target has been fixed to cover two lakh farmer families under natural farming during the current year. He said that out of total 3226 panchyats in the state, 2934 panchayats have been covered under Subhash Palekar Natural Farming.
Jai Ram Thakur said that appropriate training was also being provided to the farmers regarding natural farming. He said that as many as 72193 farmers have been trained for natural farming during the year 2019-20 against the target of 50 thousand farmers. He said that about two thousand training camps were organized during the 2019-20.
Chief Minister said that actual training camps were not possible due to the covid pandemic, regular video camps and awareness campaigns through social media were conducted to motivate the farmers to adopt natural farming. He said that personal contact with trained farmers and meeting with small groups of farmers adopting natural farming were also held during this period. He said that the State Government would also consider providing separate market place for farmers to facilitate them in selling their natural produce.
He said that the State Government was also providing subsidy of 25 percent on purchase of indigenous breed of cows which would not only help in supplementing the income of the farmers but would also help in natural farming.
