Haryana to promote organic farming

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today directed the agriculture department to identify pockets measuring 100 to 200 acres of contiguous land along the 'gaushalas' having sizable number of cows to promote organic farming in the state.

It has been decided to declare one pocket organic in the Swaran Jayanti year, he said.

Khattar issued this directive while addressing a workshop on 'the Promotion of Gausamwardhan and Organic Farming' here, today, said an official release.

Farmers adopting organic farming in place of ordinary farming are being provided assistance at the rate of Rs 20,000 per acre after a period of three years, he said.
 

Stressing the need for promoting milk of desi (indigenous) cows, the Chief Minister directed officers that aggressive marketing strategy be adopted to increase the processing capacity of A2 milk of desi cow from 5,000 liters to 20,000 liters per day.

At present, 5,000 liters of A2 milk is being processed at the milk plant, Kurukshetra. An aggressive marketing strategy should be adopted to increase it to the plant capacity of 20,000 liters.

There is lot of demand for A2 milk in the state and it has been proved that ingredients available in the milk of desi cow are beneficial in curing various diseases.

As part of the marketing strategy, the department concerned could also introduce tetra packs of A2 milk to further increase its sale at various VITA booths across the state, he said.

He asked the department to prepare a strategy for the promotion of (Gomutra) cow urine in consultation with the Department of Ayurveda.

A team comprising officers of the department concerned would visit other states to study the practices adopted by organisations involved in this work so that these could be replicated in Haryana to popularize the Panchagavya (cow) products.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor, Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Dev Vrat, stressed the need for conservation and breeding of stray cows.

Today, there are lakhs of cows in the Guashalas but only ten per cent cows give milk. District level camps should be organized to conduct medical check-up of cows and nandis (bull) before they were kept in Gaushalas.

Besides, training programmes should be organized for the caretakers of gaushals for improving the breed of cows, said Vrat while offering all support and cooperation to Kurukshetra Gurukul for this purpose.

Haryana Agriculture minister, O P Dhankar said that Haryana had a livestock of 80 lakh out which 18 lakh were cows.

Several steps have been taken by the state government for the promotion and conservation of cows in the state. Fifty per cent subsidy is given for setting up dairies housing up to five cows and a budget of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for this purpose.

Apart from this, Haryana is the first state where A2 milk of desi cow is being processed. The state government is committed to promoting organic farming and gaushalas would be made the centre for this.