Keeping in view the growing incidents of crops catching fire in the State, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Sunday ordered a special survey for the assessment of crop loss to compensate the farmers.
The Chief Minister also said that the State Government is working on different alternatives to increase the prescribed limit for procurement of mustard and bajra and plans to export mustard oil.
Manohar lal was addressing dealers and farmers after inspecting wheat procurement in Jhajjar anaj mandi (grain market). He inspected the weight of wheat sacks on scales before loading, besides the quality of wheat and the pace of procurement.
The Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Karan Dev Kamboj, was also accompanying him.
The Chief Minister congratulated the farmers for producing bumper wheat production in the state.
In the previous season, about 74 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was procured while this season, 65 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has already been procured and the procurement process would continue for ten more days, he added.
On mustard procurement, he said the Central Government procured 25 per cent of the total production for maintenance of price, but after achieving the target of 2.7 lakh metric tonnes in Haryana, additional one lakh metric tonnes of mustard was procured through HAFED.
The Chief Minister said that oil from mustard procured through HAFED would be made available at the cost of Rs 20 per litre for BPl families through public distribution system.
The previous governments never procured mustard at minimum support price, but the present government has procured mustard at MSP during the last two seasons, he said.
He also urged the farmers to take benefit of the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to make farming risk-free. The scheme has been initiated for potato, tomato, onion and cabbage growers.
Under the Fasal Bima Yojana, a sum of Rs 273 crore has been given to the farmers as compensation.
Under this scheme, between 1.5 and two per cent is taken as premium from the farmers, he added.
Regarding procurement of crops in other states, he said the system in Haryana is better than the neighbouring states. The procurement work is constantly monitored and arrangements have been made to procure the produce of farmers, he said.
The Chief Minister also interacted with the representatives of traders and dealers.