Haryana promotes horticultural activities

Chandigarh, June 14 (UNI) To give impetus to horticultural activities in the state, Haryana government has decided to implement three new schemes in five districts of the state which are not covered under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM).

A Horticulture Department spokesman said these new schemes, ' Development and Promotion of Organic Farming', 'Development of Mushroom in Haryana' and 'Demonstration-cum-Food Processing Technologies' would be implemented in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Rewari and Mahendergarh.

A total budget provision of about Rs two crore had been made to successfully implement these three schemes during the current financial year.

He said in order to promote organic farming in these districts, the state government had made a provision of over Rs 26 lakh under the scheme 'Development and Promotion of Organic Farming' during the current financial year.

Under the scheme, the farmers would be encouraged to adopt organic farming system and would be educated about vermin-compost units, organic farming and their certification, he added.

Under the scheme, an assistance to the tune of 50 per cent was proposed at a rate of Rs 10,000 per hectare, which would be limited to four hectares per beneficiary.

As the vermin-compost unit is an essential component of the organic farming, farmers would be encouraged to adopt construction of these units and 50 per cent assistance of Rs 30,000 per unit was proposed for this purpose.

A subsidy of 100 per cent was proposed for organic certification to a group of farmers covering an area of 25 hectares.

He said under the 'Development of Mushroom' scheme, an amount of Rs 50 lakh was provided for the year 2007-08. Haryana is the leading producer of mushroom in the country, growing button mushroom during the winter season and white milky mushroom oyster during the summer season.

He said an amount of Rs 1.21 crore had been provided for setting up demonstration-cum-processing centres, which would educate farmers about processing of fruit and vegetable products.

UNI