To conserve water, farmers on 98K acres shift from paddy

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 17

Taking up crop diversification in a big way, farmers on 98,000 acres of land in Haryana have said goodbye to water-guzzling paddy crop and shifted to alternative crops under Haryana Government’s flagship “Mera Pani, Meri Virasat” crop diversification scheme.

The data for the kharif-2021 showed that the farmers are taking up sowing of alternative crops like maize or pulses or diversifying into horticulture or growing vegetables in place of paddy with the ultimate aim of conserving water. The payment of incentive amounting to Rs 7,000 per acre under the scheme seems to be the primary reason for the switching over from paddy to non-paddy crops, sources said.

A maximum of 16,563 acres of land have been registered for non-paddy crops in Sirsa district followed by Fatehabad (12,187 acres), Hisar (11,471 acres), Jind (11,373), Yamunanagar (6,762) and Kaithal (6,647 acres). An encouraging sign about the awareness about the scheme is the fact farmers in all 22 districts across the state have opted for the innovative scheme, the sources said.

Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare) Sumita Misra claimed that following the stupendous success of the scheme in the past two years, the state government would promote the scheme in a big way in the coming years. “The ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virsat’ is set to be a people’s movement in Haryana with more and more farmers coming forward to reap the benefits being offered under the scheme,” she asserted.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had launched the scheme last year in a bid to conserve water and goad farmers to move away from paddy cultivation and diversify to other crops. Last year, an area of about 96,000 acres of land was diversified under the scheme and farmers given an incentive amounting to Rs 46 crore.

Initially, the scheme was launched in eight paddy-intensive blocks — Ratia, Siwan, Guhla, Pipli, Shahabad, Babain, Ismailabad and Sirsa. Seeing the response to the scheme, it was was later extended to the whole of Haryana.

Govt to promote plan in a big way

Following the stupendous success of the ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’ scheme in the past two years, the state government will promote it in a big way in the coming years. — Sumita Misra, ACS (agriculture and farmers’ welfare)