Everyone will have to move towards natural farming: Khattar

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said everyone will have to move together towards natural farming to achieve Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's goal of doubling the farmers' income by 2022.

In this year's budget,the State Government has also set a target of doing natural farming on 1 lakh acres of land, he said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Subhash Palekar Agricultural Workshop organized by the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department here.

Notably, eminent farmer Subhash Palekar is known for his zero budget natural farming.

Several farmers have adopted his popular 'Palekar Krishi' (zero budget natural farming), which is nil use of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, and many have claimed to earning double for their produce than ordinary farmers.

Speaking on the occasion, Khattar said that 500 farmers each from all the districts of the State will be trained to create an environment for natural farming and further these farmers can make small and big farmers of their districts aware of natural farming.

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and Haryana Agriculture Minister, Jai Parkash Dalal were also present.

The Chief Minister expressed gratitude to Devvrat for encouraging the cultivation of natural or 'zero budget' farming and said that with the changing times, saving nature is the need of the hour.

Speaking on the occasion, Acharya Devvrat shared his experiences related to natural farming and said that the farmers should understand the difference between organic and natural farming and everyone should take up natural farming.

He said that natural cow dung will be used for natural cultivation and other fertilizers will not be used in it, because the cow dung will produce bacteria and these bacteria will boost natural farming, it will not reduce the production but will reduce the cost for the farmers too and 70 per cent of water will be saved.

He said that the price of the yield of natural farming is two to three times higher in the market and the environment is also protected by this farming practice.

The Gujarat Governor said that in the last seven months, 1.25 lakh farmers have been introduced to natural farming in Gujarat and in the last four years thousands of farmers have been connected with natural farming in Himachal Pradesh.

Devvrat has also served as Governor of Himachal Pradesh earlier.