Himachal Governor Acharya Devvrat on Saturday said that it was a historical day for Himachal when on the eve of Hindu New Year, revolutionary step had been taken by the State Government in the direction of natural farming.
He expressed hope that in near future Himachal would emerge as natural farming state of the country and other states would follow this model.
The Governor was speaking as a chief guest in a seminar on "Zero Budget Natural Farming" (ZNBF) organised by Agriculture department here. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur presided over the seminar.
The Governor appreciated the efforts made by the Chief Minister for initiating natural farming in the state and proposing budgetary provision of Rs 25 crore for this sector during next financial year.
He said that organic farming was no more profitable to the farmers as the industries in the name of organic products had been set up throughout the world and the inputs were more costly than chemical fertilizers which show that the exploitation of farmers had not been checked.
He said that excessive use of chemical fertilizers decreases the organic carbon level and it reached at .3 in some agri fields of Punjab and Haryana.
Devvrat said that zero budget natural farming system was the only alternative for chemical and organic farming as it was safe and had capacity to double the income of farmers.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that zero budget natural farming not only enhances soil fertility and soil organic matters on continuous basis, but also has capacity to transform economy of the farmers, since it require almost zero inputs from the market.
He said that this farming was well suited for hill state like Himachal Pradesh where land holding are meager and farmers mostly rear indigenous breed of cattle.
Thakur said that the soil have all the required nutrients in abundant, hence there was no need to use chemical fertilizers.
The Chief Minister further said that the State Government has proposed a new scheme with an outlay of Rs 25 crore, namely 'Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kissan'. Under this scheme, the farmers of the state would be provided training and necessary equipment etc, he said.
He added that for the first time in the history of the state, 28 new schemes have been included in the budget proposed for the year 2018-19 and special focus has been laid on agriculture and horticulture.