The second phase of crop diversification promotion project would be launched soon in all districts of Himachal Pradesh for which all the formalities would be completed before the completion of first phase, the Mission team of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said on Friday.
The team headed by Deputy Director, South Asia Takumi Kunitake met Chief Secretary Shrikant Baldi here to discuss the launching of second phase of this project in the state.
This Mission team was on the tour of various districts of Himachal to study the positive results of the JICA funded crop diversification promotion project after launching of its first phase in five districts. It also held discussion regarding launching of second phase for which the state agriculture department had submitted Rs. 1104 crore project to the government of Japan through government of India in June, 2019.
Baldi said that this project had helped in enhancing the crop production and the income of the farmers had also improved considerably through vegetable cultivation. He said the farmers had been actively involved under this project and they were managing the irrigation schemes at their own. The agriculture department had been successfully implementing this project and all the works were being completed as per the estimated cost.
The chief secretary stressed that there was need to provide more irrigation facilities to the farmers and bring more area under vegetable cultivation. He urged JICA to approve the second phase of this project before completion of first stage so that the expertise of the available trained staff could be utilised in next phase as well.
The Mission team apprised that after submission of its report, the government of Japan would take decision on launching of the second phase after which another Mission would visit Himachal Pradesh to study the detailed project report. Thereafter, the letter of consent would be signed with the India and Japan governments. The team assured that efforts would be made to start the second phase of this project in all districts of the state for which all the formalities would be finalised before the completion of first phase.
The team visited four out of total five districts included under the first phase of the project — Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra and Mandi and expressed satisfaction over the work done in enhancing the crop production and farmers income.