Agriculture Leadership Award 2010 for Himachal

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh has been judged as Best Agriculture Performing State in the country and will be conferred upon the prestigious State Agriculture Leadership Award 2010 for its outstanding policy initiatives and performance in agriculture development,also award would be presented on 29th September, 2010 during the Agriculture Leadership Summit at New Delhi.

State government spokesman said that the Award was finalised by the National Awards Committee of the Agriculture Leadership Awards 2010 headed by Dr. A.R.Kidwai, former Governor of Haryana with Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, eminent agricultures scientist and Father of India’s green revolution as one of its members. He said that the committee was highly appreciative of the outstanding policy initiatives and performance of Himachal Pradesh Government in the field of agriculture and allied sectors, which were positively impacting the lives of vast majority of farmers and ushering rural prosperity.

He said that Agriculture Leadership Awards were instituted by ‘Agriculture Today’, a national agriculture magazine in the year 2008 for recognizing excellence and leadership roles played by individuals and organizations towards the development of Indian agriculture and bringing about rural prosperity. He said that the Leadership Award for agriculture development was given to Gujarat in 2009 and to Andhra Pradesh in 2008.

The Spokesman further said that under the leadership of Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh Government was allocating 12 % of Plan resources to agriculture and allied sectors, which percentage is highest in the country. He said that the State Government was vigorously implementing Rs. 353 crore ‘ Pt. Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojana’ under which 80 percent subsidy is being provided for construction of poly houses and micro irrigation facilities. He said that for BPL families, 90% assistance was being given for construction of bamboo poly houses. It is targeted to bring 15 lakh sq meter area under poly houses besides providing micro irrigation facility in 20,000 hectare area under the scheme in three years.

He said that special emphasis was being laid on promoting organic farming in the State and the farmers were being encouraged to have Vermi-Compost Units at their farms. He said that more than 3.40 lakh Vermi-Compost Units had been established and more than 20 thousand farmers registered for organic farming in the State. He said that the Government was providing free soil testing facility to the farmers to help them to adopt crops as per the quality of soil. He said that about three lakh soil health cards had been distributed to the farmers in the State.

He said that farmers in the State had been exempted from the payment of Stamp Duty on land mortgage up to Rs. 10 lakh. Taccavi and Land Development Loans of small and marginal farmers taken between 1950-1960 had been waived off by the Government benefiting 43,485 farmers. He said that the State had covered major crops like Maize, Rice, Wheat, Barley, Potato, Ginger in Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana (RKBY). He said that commercial crops like Tomato, Spring Potato, Apple, Mango had also been covered under Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) on pilot basis.

He said that the State Government had instituted a Scheme for awarding best farmers under which awards were given to progressive farmers at State, District and Block levels. He said that marketing infrastructure was being expanded and modernized to provide marketing facilities to the farmers.

He said that Rs. 400 crore Project had been prepared for crop diversification, organic farming and water harvesting, which had been sent to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for funding. He said that the Scheme had been enlisted in the priority list of 2010 by the Economic Affairs Department of the Central Government.

He said that the State Government had launched Rs. 300 crore, ‘Doodh Ganga Yojana’ with the objective of increasing number of quality milch cattle and milk production besides providing self employment opportunities especially to women fanners. He said that ‘Mukhaya Mantri Arogya Pashudhan Yojna’ had been initiated to provide veterinary institutions in all the left out Panchayats of the State.