Off-season veggie cultivation makes Himachal’s rural economy thrive

With agriculture is the mainstay of hill state’s people, with 90 per cent of them living in rural areas, as per state’s Economy Survey 2016-17, the government has initiated an ambitious plan for the farming community by adopting new cropping pattern, an official statement said. 

Several flagship programmes have been implemented in agro-sector to promote vegetable cultivation, particularly off-season vegetables, it said, adding vegetable crops are being grown in the state right from the Shiwalik foothills to the high-alpine zones up to 4,000 metres above the sea level. 

The state’s congenial climatic conditions have enormous potential to grow off-season vegetables like tomato, capsicum, peas, beans, cabbage, cauliflower and cucumber when these are not available in the plains, an agriculture expert said. 

This helps the farmers earning good returns with the cultivation of off-season vegetable compared to traditional cereal crops, he said. 

As per records of the state Agriculture Department, the area under vegetable crop cultivation has increased to 77,000 hectares with an annual production of about 16.54 lakh metric tonnes, and taken its annual revenue well over Rs 2,500 crore. 

The total vegetable production was just 5.80 lakh metric tonnes in 2000-01. Tomato is one of the major off-season cash crops grown in the lower and mid-hills of the state. Solan district alone harvests around 175,000 tonnes, half of the state’s overall production. 

Emphasis has been laid on diversification of crops and introduction of high-yielding hybrids of vegetables by adopting micro irrigation and organic farming. So far, 3,050 polyhouses, covering an area of 5.50 lakh square metres, have been set up under Dr YS Parmar Kisan Swarojgar Yojana. 

To provide better planting material and vegetable seedling, a Centre of Excellence for vegetable nursery production has been established at Jubberhatti near Shimla. Two such centres are being set up in Solan and Mandi districts. 

For improving the quality of production and earning handsome profits, 40,000 farmers have adopted organic farming in the state. Interestingly, farmers in the state’s landlocked valleys like Pangi in Chamba district and Dodra Kwar in Shimla district have never used pesticides and fertiliser for growing crops. 

An additional 2,000 hectares will be brought under organic farming and there are plans to develop 200 bio-villages in 2017-18, a government spokesperson said. He said farmers in the bio-villages would use only bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides and discourage the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in cultivation of vegetables and fruits. 

For meeting the demand for organic manure, the government in its budget for 2017-18 has proposed to set up 20,000 vermicompost units with 50 percent assistance to the farmers.