The focus of Himachal Government is to empower farmers organisations and SHGs at cluster, district and apex levels, implement crop diversification plans (CDPs), post-harvest, value addition etc so that the farm income of the farmers of the State could be double by 2022, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Monday.
Presiding over the inaugural session of international workshop on “impact of crop diversification on farmers income and food security” at Dharamshala, Thakur said the majority of farmers of the State were marginal and small and about 80 percent of the cropped area was rainfed. He said the Department of Agriculture proposed a loan project for JICA funding covering five most potential districts of the State for crop diversification. The loan agreement of the project was signed in February, 2011 with a total project cost of Rs . 321 crore out of which Rs 266 crore was a loan
amount.
Thakur said the main objectives of the project was to increase area and production of vegetables through crop diversification, raise income of small and marginal farmers, create infrastructure for irrigation, farm access roads, marketing as well as formation of Krishak Vikas Associations to take over operations and management of irrigation systems besides capacity building of farmers and extension officers of Department of Agriculture.
He said that the project was being implemented in close coordination of JICA Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) as a comprehensive program. He said that the farmers income has increased substantially after providing irrigation facility and taking up vegetables cultivation by them.
The Chief Minister said that there was vast potential for off season vegetable cultivation in the state. The state Government has created 59 market yards to ensure remunerative price to the farmers, but we require many more such markets in the state so that the farmers have easy access to them the market yards need to be linked with the national agriculture market for better price realization to the farmers for which the process has already started.
He said the Crop Diversification Plan (CDP) implementation was in progress in these sub-projects and other activities like construction of collection centers, farm access roads, solar pumping system, micro irrigation systems, poly-houses, vermi-compost units have also been completed in most of the sites and remaining works would be completed in the near future.
The Chief Minister said that community participation during planning, execution as well as operation & maintenance of irrigation systems was vital for the success of the project.
He said irrigation efficiency has been increased by 40-60 percent through micro irrigation system in lift and Tube-well irrigation systems although only about 20 per cent farmland of the State has been brought under irrigation facilities.
Thakur said the most important reform done in this project is transferring the ownership and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the irrigation systems to the farming communities through Krishak Vikas Association (KVA). Linking most of the projects with Farm Access Roads and solar pumping is another milestone, the project has achieved.
He said that the second Phase of the JICA project worth Rs 1104 crore has been proposed for funding which would be approved soon and would be implemented in all the twelve districts of the State. He said that the state government has started solar fencing project to save the crop of the farmers from wild and stay animals.
The Chief Minister released various publications and souvenir on the occasion.
Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Matsumoto Katsuo, who was also the guest of honour said that JICA was committed to provide all possible help to the State Government to make the JICA project a success in the State.
He said that the Technical Project of JICA also was operating and supporting the loan project to introduce and standardise innovations in increasing efficiency and farm income.
He said that a new mushroom strain ‘Shitake’ has been introduced in the state which has high nutritional and medicinal value.
Principal Secretary Agriculture Onkar Sharma said that to know the exact potential for crop diversification, a two year study was conducted between 2007 and 2009 which was supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as granted under bi-lateral cooperation.