Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Thursday said the State Government is formulating a policy to rejuvenate the agriculture sector and link it to the industry so as to ensure double benefit to farmers.
The farmers would be encouraged to adopt organic farming and water conservation, said the Chief Minister while addressing a national seminar on “development of states with special emphasis on northern-western States”.
He said that the State Governments, industries, agriculture scientists and farmers would have to make efforts together to achieve the desired results. While emphasising the need for having a detailed policy by northern-western States, especially for Haryana and Punjab, he said that this would help not only in increasing the farmers’ income but would also ensure creation of new employment opportunities in agriculture sector.
Describing industry as next priority after agriculture, the Chief Minister said that Haryana surrounds Delhi on three sides which attract entrepreneurs for setting up of their venture. The young farmers, who do not wish to adopt farming on their valuable land should be imparted training to improve their skills so that they could train themselves in service and industry sectors. This institute would also provide guidance for rejuvenation of agriculture sector, said Manohar lal.
He said that State Government is stressing on the conversion of agriculture to horticulture dominated State. First Horticulture University of the state is being set up in Karnal. Its three centers would also be opened, one at Dera village in district Ambala, second at Bakhtavarpur Raiyya village in Jhajjar and third in Jind. A budget provision of Rs 50 crore had also been earmarked for this university in year 2016-17, he informed.
The Government is also setting up centres of excellence for horticulture in every district. Work is under progress for setting up of Integrated Bee Development Centre at Ramnagar in Kurukshetra under Indo-Israel project, said the CM.
With a view to ensure social and economic safety of farmers, the Government is working on self pension scheme so as to give them pension after attaining the age of 60 year, he added.
The Chief Minister also lal said that efforts are being made to provide employment opportunities to a maximum number of youth under new Enterprises Promotion Policy of the State Government. Besides, skill upgradation of the youth is also being ensured so that they match the requirement of industries, he said.
The Government is a considering a proposal to give unemployment allowance to the unemployed youth and they would also work for 100 hours. Haryana is giving minimum wages of Rs 7,600 per month to unskilled labourers and Rs 9,700 per month to skilled labourers, he said.
While stressing the need for value addition and processing in agro-products, the CM said that special attention should be paid to increase income of farmers. Both public and private sectors should move forward together for this purpose. North -Western States like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and UT Chandigarh should work together to achieve the desired results in this direction, he added.