Haryana govt continuously taking steps to raise farmers’ income: State’s agri minister

Haryana Agriculture Minister J P Dalal on Wednesday said the state government is continuously working to increase the income of farmers. He said several steps are being taken towards increasing the farmers’ income. Dalal said the Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium Haryana (SFACH), a body focused on increasing incomes of small and marginal farmers through aggregation and development of agri-business, has signed a contract with private companies for the purchase of 700 tonnes (MT) of kinnow from farmers of the Sirsa district for this year.




He added that farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) are being formed so that peasants can get good prices for their crops. Dalal said that till date, a total of 486 FPOs have been formed in Haryana and they have been registered under the Companies Act, 2013. More than 76,000 farmers have been associated with these FPOs, he said in a statement here. Under the recently announced new FPO Policy 2020 by the Government of India, efforts will be made to reach the target of forming 1,000 FPOs by the year 2021-22, he added. The minister said these new FPOs will be formed on the basis of cluster approach in Haryana.

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Devender Singh, additional chief secretary (agriculture and farmers’ welfare department) of Haryana, said the farmers are trained to do joint farming by forming FPOs. “The objective of SFACH is also to ensure that the FPOs get fair prices for their crops.” SFACH always aims to provide fertilisers and seeds to farmers at affordable rates, he added.