State Sponsored Schemes
1. Quality Seed Multiplication and Distribution:
Agriculture Department owns 36 Seed Farms where foundation seeds of Kharif and Rabi crops are produced. Annually about 3500 to 4000 quintals seed of cereals, pulses and vegetables are produced in these farms. Further about 90,000 quintals of certified seeds of various crops are distributed to the farmers in the state. At present 5 grading centres are in operation for various crops. Under this scheme, expenditure on seed multiplication farms, seed testing and certification, subsidy on cost of seeds and cost on demonstrations etc is incurred.
2. Manure and Fertilizers:
(a) Distribution of Fertilizers: The State Govt. has allowed cost subsidy on complex fertilizers NPK 12:32:16, NPK 10:26:26 and NPK 15:15:15 @ Rs.1000/-per MT. Apart from this cost subsidy @25% is also being provided on 100% water soluble complex fertilizers to the farmers ( limited to Rs. 2500 per farmer). In order to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers, the Govt. has entrusted this responsibility to HIMFED/Cooperative Societies. The farmers are educated about balanced use of fertilizers and as per soil testing nutrient basis.
(b) Soil Testing Centres: Soil testing has great importance for raising agriculture production. The department is providing free soil testing facilities to the farmers. Department has 11 Soil Testing Laboratories besides four mobile soil testing labs to provide free soil testing facilities to the farmers. About 1,25,000 samples are analysed annually. Besides this Soil Health Cards are being provided to the farmers. About one lac farmers are being covered every year. Outlay proposed is to meet expenditure on these labs for testing of soil samples. Soil testing service has also being included under H.P. Govt. Public Service Act, 2011 in which the soil health cards are being made available to the farmers through online service within prescribed time limit.
3. Plant Protection :
The Department exercise vigil on pest situation. To overcome this, about 150 MT of pesticides through 991 sale centres are supplied to the farmers. Besides this, Pesticide Testing Laboratory at Shimla has been set up with a capacity of 150 to 250 samples per year. One Bio Control Laboratory has been set up at Palampur where conservation pest situation augmentation, rearing and multiplication of bio-agents and training to extension staff and farmers are being done. Another Bio Control Laboratory has been set up at Mandi and will be made functional very soon. This is a continued scheme and the provision is made for meeting the expenditure on transportation and subsidy on the cost of plant protection material. The plant protection material including equipments are supplied to the SCs / STs /IRDP families at 50% cost. The outlay proposed is to meet expenditure on subsidies.
4. Commercial Crops :
Under diversification approach, major emphasis is being laid on the production of Off-season vegetables, quality vegetable seeds, Potato and Ginger besides Soybean, Oilseeds and Pulses.
(a) Development of Seed Potato: The Department owns 13 Potato Development Stations where foundation seed potato is produced. Due to "Seed Plot Technique" in the plains, the Potatoes of plains are causing tough competition in marketing of seed Potato from H.P. Therefore, a policy has been devised to diversify the area under Potato towards cash crop. Market maximum potato as table and produce only that much seed potato which can easily be marketed outside the State.
(b) Development of Vegetables including Farms: Himachal Pradesh gained reputation for the cultivation of off-season vegetables and production of quality vegetable seeds. There is a great demand of off-season vegetables in the plains. The ongoing programme i.e. cultivation of off-season vegetables and production of vegetable seeds is proposed to be strengthened and organized on an extensive scale during 12th Plan for providing higher income and employment. The suitable areas in the State for the purpose of vegetable cultivation would be intensively surveyed and identified and the The suitable areas in the State for the purpose of vegetable cultivation would be intensively surveyed and identified and the farmers in the newly identified areas would be encouraged to take up these programme, demonstration on vegetables cultivation are done for the small and marginal farmers in these areas, so that the farm income of these rural poor can be improved and country can be supplied with the vegetables in off-season. The cropping pattern shifts from cereals to vegetables would be specially monitored in all such areas as are being brought under the culturable command area of the new irrigation schemes. Annually about 13.5 lakh tonne vegetables are produced and marketed within and outside the State.
(c) Ginger Development: For production of disease free ginger, the Department is providing training, demonstrations and quality seed. About 35,000 tonnes of green ginger is produced annually which is marketed within the State and at the neighbouring States.
5. Quality Control:
Under this scheme, implementation of various acts on seeds, fertilizers and pesticides is ensured. Quality control functionaries have been notified. The Department has three fertilizer testing labs (Hamirpur, Sundernagar, Shimla), one state pesticides testing lab at Shimla, Biofertilizer and Biopesticide lab at Palampur and three seed testing labs (Solan, palampur and Mandi). 2000 fertilizer samples, 300 pesticide and 1200 seed samples are being analysed annually.
6. Agricultural Marketing:
This is controlled in the State through H.P. Agricultural and Horticultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005. Under this Act, H.P. State Agricultural Marketing Board has been set-up. At present, 10 market committees are functioning. 53 markets have been made functional. Market information is being disseminated through different media i.e AIR Doordershan print media and through Net to farmers. The work of development of marketing infrastructure is done out of the funds of APMCs. Information on daily market rates is also disseminated through AIR/ DD. Market rates of 39 commodities are also disseminated through agmarknet.nic.in. The APMC act has been repeated as per the model act and provision has been made for private markets, single point market fee, contract farming etc.
7. H.P. Crop Diversification Project (JICA ODA ( official Development Assistance ) Loan Project) :
Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Project being supported by JICA through ODA loan. The study on diversified agriculture for enhanced farm income in Himachal Pradesh was got conducted from Japan International Cooperative agency (JICA) w.e.f. February, 2007 to December, 2008. Draft report of the study was submitted by JICA in December, 2008 and final report in March, 2009. The study was fully funded by JICA as grant under bilateral cooperation. The report contains Crop Diversification Action Plan for 10 years and Master Plan for 15 years.
Objectives of the Project :
1. Increase the area and production of vegetables through crop diversification. 2. To raise income of small and marginal farmers. 3. To create infrastructures for irrigation, farm access roads, marketing, post harvest etc. 4. To promote organic farming in a big way. 5. To organize farmers into groups to take over operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. 6. Training and capacity building of Department of Agriculture field extension staff. 7. The project is being implemented through Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Development Society. It has Governing Council, Executive and Finance Committee. For overall management of the project, State Project Management Unit (PMU) has been set up at Hamirpur, three District PMU's at Palampur, Mandi, Hamirpur and 8 Block PMU's at Dehra, Nurpur, Baijnath, Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur, Mandi, Sarkaghat have been set up.
8. Project under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (R.I.D.F):
Special Project on Diversification of Agriculture through Micro Irrigation and Other Related Infrastructure in H.P.
Although water is a renewable resource, its availability in appropriate quality and quantity in under severe stress due to increasing demand from various sectors. Agriculture is the largest user of water, which consumes more than 80% of the country's exploitable water resources. The over all development of agriculture sector and indented growth rate of GDP is largely dependent on the judicious use of available water resources, while the irrigation projects [major and medium] have contributed to the development of water resources, the conventional methods of water conveyance and irrigation, being highly inefficient, has led not only to wastage of water but also to several ecological problems like water logging, salinisation and soil degradation making productive agricultural lands unproductive. It has been recognised that use of modern irrigation methods like drip and sprinkler irrigation is the only alternative for efficient use of surface as well as ground water resources. Hence, this project on diversification through micro irrigation and other related infrastructure in HP aims at increasing the area under efficient methods of irrigation viz., drip and sprinkler irrigation. NABARD has sanctioned this project under RIDF- XIV amounting to Rs.198.09 crores starting from 2009-10. The project components include sprinkler system, drip system, farm tank, shallow well, shallow tube well, deep tube well, small and medium lifts and pumping machinery. For sprinkler and drip systems, the farmers shall be provided 80% subsidy and 20% would be beneficiary's contribution. Besides this the farmers shall also be provided 50% assistance for creation of farm tank, shallow well, shallow tube well, deep tube well, small and medium lifts and pumping machinery. A farmer can install sprinkler system up to 4 hectares of land whereas for drip up to one hectare. Up to date, 31,224 sprinkler sets have been installed covering an area of 21648.13 ha. and sum of Rs. 9447.32 lakhs has been spent.
9. Dr. Y. S. Parmar Kisan Sawrozgar Yojna:
In order to achieve faster and more inclusive growth in Agriculture sector Government of Himachal Pradesh has started. "Dr. Y. S. Parmar Kisan Swarozgar Yojna" (Poly House and Micro Irrigation). Project components include creation of need based infrastructure and are expected to fulfill objectives of high productivity, quality, safeguard against adverse weather, efficient input use etc. Project components include construction of location specific models of poly houses with micro irrigation facility. For this, 85% project assistance shall be provided to the farmers. Also for creation for water sources individually and collectively by a group of farmers (Low/medium lift, pumping machinery), 50% subsidy shall be provided. The total cost of the project is Rs.111.19 crore which shall be implemented in four years starting from 2014-2015 to 2017-2018. The project envisages construction of 4,700 No's Poly Houses, 2150 No's Micro Irrigation Systems of different designs suitable to different agro-ecological situation in the State. Beside this 60 No's of small lift, 60 No's of medium lift and 750 No's of pumping units shall also be established under this project.
10. Rajiv Gandhi Micro-Irrigation Scheme:
State Government is committed to promote Agriculture in the State by increasing the productivity of crops. For efficient system of irrigation the Government has launched crucial Project named 'Rajiv Gandhi Micro-Irrigation Scheme' with an outlay of Rs.154 Crore over a period of 4 years. Through this Project, 8,500 hectare area will be brought under Drip/ Sprinkler Irrigation System benefitting 14,000 farmers. Farmers will get a subsidy of Rs.113 Crore during the project period. The project is under appraisal with NABARD under RIDF funding. A. 80% assistance shall be provided to individual farmer for Micro- irrigation Systems. B. 50% assistance for construction of shallow wells, shallow bore wells- Shallow well with minimum depth 8 m and diameter 2.45 m, limited to Rs. 70,000/- Shallow bore well with minimum depth 35 m and minimum diameter 125 mm limited to Rs. 1.0 lac . C. 50% assistance for lifting water with electric motor of 3 HP and 7.5 HP and above i.e. low and medium lifts, limited to Rs. 70,000/- and Rs. 2,00,000/- respectively. D. 50% assistance for pumping machinery.
11. Mukhya Mantri Kisaan Evam Khetihar Mazdoor Jeevan Suraksha Yojna:
It shall come into force with immediate effect. The accidents taken place on or after the approval of the scheme by the Govt., shall be dealt with under this scheme. This scheme is being launched for the welfare of farmers and shall be implemented by the Agriculture Department.
Scope of the Scheme: This Scheme is to provide compensation to the farmers and agricultural labourers in the event of sustaining injury or death during the operation of farm machinery. Farm machinery for this purpose include Tractors registered for Agricultural purpose, Power Tillers, Weeders, Power plough, Reaper cum Binder, Power Thrasher, Chaffcutters, implements, tools, equipments installation & operation of tube well/bore well/pumping sets, low lifts. The scheme is limited to the domicile farmers and farm labourers and not to a worker/employee of any company/contractor.
This scheme shall cover the following incidents. (a) Death or disablement of any farmers or agriculture labourer due to an accident occurred while working on the Farm, Machinery, Implements, Tools, Equipments etc. at his home, farm or while carrying those machinery farm home to farm and vice versa in the State of Himachal Pradesh. This also include Death or disablement of any farmer or farm labourer due to an accident occurred while, installing/operating Tubewell, Borewell, pumping set, low lifts etc. (b) Death or disablement of any farmer or labourer due to electric current while installing, carrying and operating any power operated machinery;
Age Group: The age group of the victims should not be less than 14 years.
Quantum of Assistance: The claimants covered under the scope of this scheme shall be paid compensation, which is; on Death Rs.1,50,000; on Permanent disability due to breakage of back bone or otherwise Rs.50,000; on Amputation of two limbs/ permanent serious injury Rs.40,000; on Amputation of one limb (amputation of four fingers shall be deemed as loss of one limb)/ permanent serious injury Rs.30,000; on Amputation of full finger (up to 3 fingers) Rs.20,000; Partial Amputation of finger/thumb Rs.10,000
Control of the Scheme: This scheme shall be executed by the Agriculture Department under the over all control and supervision of the Director of Agriculture Himachal Pradesh. The compensation for the claim shall be paid by the Distt. Level Officers out of the funds provided under the scheme.
Procedure for application: In case of Death: In the event of death of the victim, the claim application on the prescribed proforma must be signed by the legal heir of the deceased.
Disputes Redressal Authority: The Director Agriculture shall be the Appellate Authority to dispose of the grievances. Limitations: The Administrative Department i.e. Secretary Agriculture is empowered to make modifications in the scheme and procedure laid down for making applications/claims and its disposal from time to time as considers appropriate for the implementation of this scheme.
Repeal and savings: The scheme is to provide compensation to the victims of accidents during operation of farm machinery. Provided that any order made or action taken under the scheme so repealed shall be deemed to have been made or taken under the corresponding provisions of this scheme.
12. Establishment of Centers of Excellence for Vegetable Nursery Production:
The state Government has started new scheme named 'Establishment of Centres of Excellence for Vegetable Nursery Production' by farmers to raise the vegetables seedling, flower and other valuable plants under controlled environment to provide better planting material to the farmers and to provide gainful employment to the farming youth. A provision of Rs.2.00 Crore has been kept for 2015-2016. Ten such high tech nurseries are being setup in the State during this year.
13. Uttam Chaara Utpadan Yojna:
With a view to increase fodder production in the State, The State Government has launched a new scheme; 'Uttam Chaara Utpadan Yojana' for fodder development by bringing an area of 25,000 hectare under fodder production. Quality Seed of Fodder Grasses, Cuttings, Seedlings of Improved Fodder Varieties will be supplied on subsidised rates to the farmers. Chaff Cutters are important input for farmers. Subsidy on Chaff Cutters is available to the SC/ST and BPL farmers. A provision of Rs.3.00 Crore has been kept for 2015-2016.
14. Lift Irrigation and Borewell Scheme:
In most parts of the State, water has to be lifted for irrigation purpose. As an incentive to the farmers, Government has decided to grant 50 per cent subsidy for construction of Lift Irrigation Schemes and installation of Bore-Wells by individual or group of farmers for irrigation purposes. A provision of Rs.20 Crore has been kept for 2015-2016. The same will be increased as per the actual demand from the farmers.
15. Organic Farming :
The State has diverse agro-climate conditions and due to its favourable positioning in the Himalayan region, has great scope for promotion of Organic farming. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the State is very low and 80% of the area is rainfed. The State Government formulated a Policy on Organic Farming in 2010 and has covered 30,110 farmers with an area of 17,848 ha under Organic farming. During current financial year 2000 hectare additional area is being covered under organic farming. During 2015-2016 200 Villages will be converted into complete Bio-Villages. During current financial year 20,000 Vermi-Compost Units with 50 per cent assistance will be set up.
16. Soil and Water Conservation:
Due to topographical factors, the soil is subject to splash, sheet and Gully erosion resulting into degradation of the soil. Besides this, there is biotic pressure on the lands to the curb this menace particularly on the agricultural lands. The Department of Agriculture, H.P. is executing two Soil and Water Conservation schemes under State Sector Scheme. The schemes are:
A. Soil Conservation Works
B. Water Conservation and Development
17. Agriculture Research and Education:
Under this, GIA is given to Agriculture University for Teaching, Research & Extension. Emphasis is being laid on location specific research for adoption of the same by the farming community of the State.
18. EXTENSION AND FARMERS TRAINING:
Main function of the Department is to disseminate the technology to farmers. The Department runs two training centres, one at Mashobra and other at Sundernagar. Besides this farmers training camps are organised at village, block and district level. The outlay proposed is for meeting expenditure on training and demonstrations.
19. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & STATISTICS:
Under this programme, three centrally sponsored schemes viz (i) Timely Reporting Scheme(TRS) for estimation of area and production of crops (ii) Improvement of Crop Statistics(ICS) for bringing quality in the land record data at grass root level and (iii) Estimation of Production of Commercial crops like Potato and Ginger. The estimation is done accordingly to statistical techniques. Production estimates on principal crops like Wheat, Barley of Rabi season and Maize, Paddy, Potato and Ginger crops of Kharif are released on the basis of results of crop cutting experiments conducted accordingly Random Sampling Method. The Director of Land Records is the agency in the State responsible for collection and release of area estimates, forecast report etc. This is a continued scheme for meeting salaries of the staff under Timely Reporting Scheme and the Scheme of Improvement of Crop Statistics. These schemes converted in to 100% CSS from the financial year 2008-09 onwards.
20. AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING:
Under this scheme, new farm implements/ machines are popularized among the farmers. Testing and demonstration of new machines is also done under this programme. The outlay proposed is towards subsidies and salaries of the staff.