Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said use of latest technology and crop diversification is being promoted in the state and an area of 46,249 hectares has been diversified in place of paddy under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat’ scheme.

”An incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre is given to farmers who grow alternate crops in place of paddy under the ‘Mera Pani-Meri Virasat’ scheme. Furthermore, an incentive amount of Rs 76 crore has been deposited in the accounts of 74,133 farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT),” he said. ”Under this scheme, an area of 46,249 hectares has been diversified in the last two years,” he said.

Khattar was speaking at the seventh NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. He further said the northern state contributes about 15 per cent foodgrains to the central pool.

“Our agricultural growth rate is about 3.3 per cent per annum. Productivity is high in the state, which is Rs 1.57 lakh per hectare…,” he said, pointing out that these figures clearly indicate that the income of farmers of the state is constantly increasing. The Haryana chief minister added that crop diversification has been adopted in an area of 62,500 acres for maize and 32,500 acres for pulses. An incentive of Rs 10,000 per hectare is also being given to farmers who sow paddy through Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR) technique. This saves about 25 to 30 per cent of water, he said. He also said Haryana has launched a special scheme to promote cultivation of dates and dragon fruit. Under this scheme, a subsidy of Rs 3 lakh per hectare is provided for the cultivation of dragon fruit. “To free the farmers from the risk of facing losses due to fall in market prices of fruits and vegetables, Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana has been implemented in the state. Under this scheme, 21 horticultural crops and millet have also been included,” he said. ”We provided assistance to millet (Bajra) farmers at the rate of Rs 600 per quintal (difference between MSP and market rate) and an amount of Rs 429 crore was paid to 2,38,245 farmers through DBT,” he said. The senior BJP leader said demand-driven and need-based crop diversification in agriculture is the need of the hour. ”The more the agriculture is linked to the market and is diversified as per the market demand, the more the income will increase,” he said. The chief minister said Haryana ranks second in the country in terms of per capita availability of milk per day. He stated that around 3.40 lakh animals have been insured under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Pashudhan Suraksha Yojana’. Khattar said his government is completely focused on promoting natural farming in the state and farmers should also be encouraged for the same. “Several schemes are being run by the state government to promote natural farming. We are shifting from chemical farming to natural farming as a result of which so far 2,804 farmers have been registered on the portal created to promote natural farming,” he said while urging the Centre to promote natural farming in the country. The CM said despite being a small state, Haryana has made a significant contribution to the country’s economy. The per capita income of Haryana is Rs 2,74,635, which is the highest among the major states of India. Haryana is also included in the leading states of the country on the parameters of economic development, he said. He informed that since 2015-16 to 2020-21, Haryana’s growth rate has been continuously recorded at more than 6 per cent. Haryana’s manufacturing growth rate is 10 per cent, which he said is highest in the country. “More than half the area of the state comes under the National Capital Region (NCR). To promote the business and industrial sector in this NCR region, we are developing it as a logistic hub,” he said. Touching upon the education sector, Khattar said Haryana has set a target to implement the New Education Policy- 2020 by the year 2025. For this, a high-level committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the education minister, he said.