Organic Farming Can Change Farmers’ Fortune

By: Jun 24th, 2017 12:20 am

Vijay Sharma

(The writer is based at Hamirpur)

Vijay Sharma The World Bank funded Rs. 1134 crore project with an aim to promote organic farming and increase production of horticulture and high quality crops will definitely benefit Himachali farmers. Besides development of high quality crops, development of infrastructural facilities is also included, that have serious lacking right now.  90% of Himachal’s population lives in villages and is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. Participation of women in this sector is about 80% in the hill state.

Implementation of this Rs. 1134 crore World Bank funded project will have its positive impact on all 12 districts of Himachal Pradesh with farmers the most profited lot. This project will help in improving the quality of fruit production through introduction of modern techniques. It will also ensure water availability during summers besides having a provision for development of complete irrigation facility for 19,560 hectares of land. It will aid in increasing production of crops thereby benefiting farmers and orchardists. Recently under a pilot project asafoetida (hing), ginger, cinnamon, coffee were cultivated at Bijrodi village in Bilaspur district and it yielded good results. Due to increasing production cost in traditional farming and threats of monkey and wild animals to the crop, farmers are veering towards crop diversification. And the government is helping farmers in this endeavour. The climate and atmosphere of Himachal is considered best for the farming of medicinal plants and quality of such plants grown here is considered to be best in the market. And medicinal product like aloevera is in great demand these days. More than 500 farmers in Kangra and Una are practising the farming of aloevera. The unique thing about aloevera is that it can be cultivated over any type of land and even animals do not eat it. Use of organic manure in aloevera farming gives better results. The state government has decided to bring 2200 hectares of land under organic farming. 110 clusters of 50 acres each will be constituted under the plan with a provision of budget of Rs. 7.68 crore. About 30,110 farmers have registered under organic farmingand about 17,848 hectares of land has been brought under organic farming till now. The worries of farmers are big, as despite hard work they are not getting the proper price for their produce. Indian government is serious about doubling the income of farmers and to find the solution to the problems of farmers. No doubt production has increased considerably under the green revolution that country witnessed about 30 years back. But the excessing use of inorganic fertilizers like urea is hurting farmers now. The productivity of soil has decreased due to excessive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. On the other hand organic farming does not hurt the soil productivity and increased produce with high quality  crops, fruits and foodgrains can be obtained through organic farming. Farmers therefore will have to shift towards organic farming as they are in great demand in market and fetching good prices as well.

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