Chandigarh, March 27 – Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Sh. Shyam Singh Rana said the State Government is focusing on awareness and training programmes for farmers and officials in the first phase of Natural Farming Scheme. In the second phase, it will take comprehensive steps for certification, branding/packaging and marketing of natural farming products. Besides, the State Government will link HAFED and Haryana Agro Industries Corporation (HAIC) with Farmer Producer Organizations/Natural Farming Groups to help farmers get better price for their natural produce.
Sh. Rana was replying to a calling attention motion related to ‘Importance of Natural Farming’ in the Haryana Assembly today.
The Agriculture Minister informed that Haryana State Seed Certification Agency has been nominated by the Government of India for certification of natural farming products. The State Government has also constituted a committee to explore the formula/fixation of MSP for natural farming products or to provide incentives to farmers to compensate for the loss of yield at the beginning of adopting natural farming. Giving information about the steps taken by the state government to create interest of farmers towards natural farming, he said that the state government is implementing natural farming from the year 2022-23 under the State Scheme ‘Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Strategic Initiatives and Farmers’ Welfare Fund’, so that farmers can be made aware to adopt chemical-free agriculture. He informed that the main objective of this scheme is to promote climate-friendly farming in harmony with nature, reduce the cost of cultivation, make farming a sustainable livelihood option, improve soil fertility, micro flora and fauna, water holding capacity, water infiltration and percolation, promote chemical-free agriculture, reduce soil, environmental and aquatic pollution and create awareness in the farming community to adopt natural farming.
He said that to achieve these objectives of Natural Farming Scheme, the State Government has started large-scale awareness campaigns, farmer seminars, workshops, natural farming fairs and exposure visits for officials and farmers. 720 Kisan Goshtis, 22 workshops and one state level fair have been organized since the year 2022 and more than 35,000 farmers have participated in these programmes.
He further informed that the methods of natural farming are quite different from the prevalent chemical-based farming, hence farmers need extensive training in view of the challenges in adopting the new system. Therefore, the state government has established four training centers at Gurukul-Kurukshetra, Hameti-Jind, Gharaunda-Karnal and Mangiana-Sirsa to enhance the awareness and training skills of farmers and Agriculture Department officials. 9707 participants have been trained so far since the year 2022. The trainees include young farmers, women and government employees. Apart from this, Hameti-Jind has also given one-day online training to 6,234 Sarpanches of the state. Sh. Shyam Singh Rana informed that 1,77,892 farmers have shown interest in natural farming and have registered themselves on the Prakritik Kheti portal for 2,63,979 acres of area. Out of this, 10474 farmers have been verified for adopting natural farming in 16800 acres of area.
The minister said the government provides various types of grants and incentives to encourage the farmers of the state towards natural farming. He informed that Rs 3,000 per farmer is provided to the farmers for the purchase of 4 drums for storage/processing of raw material. Similarly, farmers adopting natural farming in 2 acres or more area were given a subsidy of Rs 25000 on the purchase of a native cow, which has now been increased to Rs 30000 (1 acre) from the year 2025.
He further informed that a total of Rs. 14.77 crore has been disbursed under this scheme from the year 2022 till date which includes Rs. 1.23 crore for purchase of 492 desi cows and Rs. 75 lakh for purchase of drums to 2500 farmers.
Sh. Shyam Singh Rana also informed that Government of India has also launched National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 39.70 crore to promote natural farming with interventions like awareness generation, cluster formation, involvement of Krishi Sakhis (Community Resource Persons) and orientation programmes in Gram Panchayats. Additionally, Gurukul-Kurukshetra and Hameti-Jind have been notified as Centres of Natural Farming (CONF) in the state under NMNF. To make farmers aware and reach out to the public, training under NMNF has started at Centres of Natural Farming (CONF), Gurukul from January 2025. The Government of India has focused on setting up two Indian Natural Bio-Input Resource Centres to promote bio-fertilizers.
He informed that the state government has set a target of 1 lakh acres under natural farming in the budget for the year 2025-26.
Expressing his commitment to focus specially on natural farming in the state, the Agriculture Minister said the state government is making every effort to improve the health and economic condition of the people of the state.
