Speaking at the Agriculture and Horticulture Conference in Bengaluru, state Agriculture Minister, Virender Kanwar, thanked the Central government for its support of the state government’s endeavour in pursuit of natural farming.

Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Virender Kanwar requested the Union government to set up national-level centres of excellence for natural farming and seed potato techniques in the state, on Thursday.

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Addressing a two-day national conference on agriculture and horticulture, the minister highlighted the importance and success of natural farming in the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh and said there was a need to strengthen research and development in this direction.

Agriculture ministers from all the states in the county attended the conference held in Bengaluru.

The minister added that the state government is motivating and training the farmers to adopt Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF) technique through Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y) for the last four years.

He pointed out that as many as 1.71 lakh farmers in his state are now practising natural farming. The state government has reached out to 99 per cent of panchayats in the state with this initiative.

The natural farming technique is a non-chemical, low-cost, climate resilient initiative. The minister said the state government is confident of having successful models of natural farming in all the panchayats very soon. The small states are now showing the way to the entire country in natural farming.
Virender Kanwar shared success stories of externally aided projects on crop diversification carried out in the state with the collaboration of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the HP Shiva and the HP Horticulture Development Project which were financed by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, respectively.

On the occasion, he thanked the Central government for its support of the state government’s endeavour in pursuit of natural farming.

Agriculture Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh Rakesh Kanwar and Director, Agriculture, HP, NK Dhiman, and officers from the state Horticulture Department also attended the conference.