Adopted farmer-friendly policies to strengthen rural economy: Sukhu
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today said that the state government was committed to strengthening the rural economy through sustainable and farmer-friendly policies.
He said that the government had taken a pioneering step by becoming the first state in the country to fix the highest support price for wheat and maize under natural farming. He added, “Himachal has set a milestone by purchasing wheat for Rs 40 per kg and maize for Rs 30 per kg produced naturally. So far, 398 metric tonnes of naturally-grown maize have been procured from 1,508 farmers and Rs 1.19 crore has been transferred to their bank accounts.”
Sukhu said that to encourage farmers to adopt natural farming, the government had started the Rajiv Gandhi Natural Farming Start-up Yojana as part of the Rs 680 crore Rajiv Gandhi Start-up Yojana. This year alone, 36,000 farmers had adopted natural farming, adding to the count of 1.98 lakh farmers already cultivating over 35,000 hectares.
He said that under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), Rs 153 crore payments had been released to growers, which were pending since the tenure of the previous BJP government. The minimum support price (MSP) for apple, mango and citrus fruits had been increased to Rs 12 per kg, he added.
