Himachal govt committed to double farmers income by 2022, says CM Jai Ram Thakur

Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], Feb 10 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday said the focus of the state government is to empower farmers organisations and Self Help Groups (SHGs) in order to double the farmers' income by 2022.
"The focus of the state government is to empower farmers organisations and SHGs at cluster, district and apex levels, implement crop diversification plans (CDPs), post-harvest, value addition etc so that the farm income of the farmers of the State could be double by 2022 as envisioned by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said Thakur.
Thakur, who was presiding over the inaugural session of the international workshop on "Impact of crop diversification on farmers income and food security" at Dharamshala, said the majority of farmers of the state were marginal and small and about 80 per cent of the cropped area was rainfed.
Stating that the state government has created 59 market yards to ensure remunerative price to the farmers, he said: "We require many more such markets in the state so that the farmers have easy access to them. The market yards need to be linked with the national agriculture market for better price realisation to the farmers for which the process has already started."
"In order to promote e-National Agriculture Market (NAM) and direct marketing of agriculture produced in the state, the state government is committed to providing legal framework," he added.
He said that the second phase of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project worth Rs 1104 crore has been posed for funding which would be approved soon and would be implemented in all the twelve districts of the state.
Thakur said that the state government has started solar fencing project to save the crop of the farmers from wild and stay animals. (ANI)