Himachal Pradesh aims to bring additional land under natural farming in FY24

Shimla: The agriculture department of Himachal Pradesh has set the target to bring an additional 30,000 acres of land under natural farming in 2023-24.

So far, 1.59 lakh farmers in the state are practicing natural farming on around 50,000 acres of land, officials said.

Secretary, Agriculture, Rakesh Kanwar asked the officials in Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana to engage with farmers to work on area expansion under natural farming ahead of Kharif season, a statement has said.

Chairing the review meeting of the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana here on Wednesday, Kanwar asked the officials to reach out to the farmers with millet production plan as well for the kharif season and said they must do necessary arrangements for the same, including timely availability of millet seeds to farmers.

He said the officials must organize regular interaction of trained farmers with new farmers for experience sharing and for awareness on the natural farming techniques.

He said that areas should also be identified where the people are willing to opt for natural farming on their own and work out a strategy to declare them a natural village or Panchayat.

He said that the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y) should aim at assessing the production of the natural apples so that it could be well advertised in advance to see the response among buyers. This would add to the marketing linkages for the natural produce.

State Project Director, PK3Y Naresh Thakur asked the officials to devise a method so that the NGOs or Farmer Producer Organisations can also be brought under certification for agriculture and horticulture produce.

"A mechanism should also be there to certify the processed products like ghee of a desi cow, fruit jam etc for better marketing," he said.