The is promoting natural farming in a big way so as to double the income of the farmers by end of 2022, said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while addressing the National Webinar on Realization of Mission Natural Farming among Smallholders.
Thakur said to promote natural farming in the state, the government was implementing the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana. He said that this would not only boost the yield of the crops but also reduce farming inputs. He said that Subhash Palekar Natural Farming was emerging as favourite for agricultural practices to reduce farmers direct cost while boosting the yield and farm Health through the use of non-synthetic inputs sourced locally.
He said 9.61 lakh farmers of the state were being encouraged to adopt natural farming so that Himachal could become a natural farming state of the country. As many as 1.28 lakh farmers have already been trained in natural farming and were motivating others to adopt the same.
The CM said the land holdings in the state were limited and most of the farmers fall under small and marginal categories. Natural farming not only gave a better yield but also fetched a good price to farmers. He said that the government was also endeavoring to evolve a mechanism for the certification of natural products so that they could fetch better prices.