Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday announced that power tariff on the horticulture sector would be charged at par with the agriculture sector.
Presiding over the State Coordination Committee for Agricultural Production for Rabi 2009-10 here, he said this would prove a boon for the farmers and help in promoting horticulture in a big way. The power tariff for horticulture would be 25 paisa per unit instead of Rs. 2 per unit, he added.
Mr. Hooda said the Union Government had also approved two hi-tech demonstration units of flower cultivation to be set up in Karnal and Gurgaon or Panchkula.
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He disclosed that under the National Horticulture Mission, over Rs.100 crore had been sanctioned to promote different horticultural activities in the State including construction of community tanks. He directed the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board to speed up construction of terminal markets at Ganaur.
Haryana, he said, was the No. 1 State in the country in the production of white button mushroom with 6,700 metric tonnes produced last year.
Mr. Hooda directed the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Power) that an assessment of power tariff be made for the fisheries sector to benefit fish breeders. He also claimed that the State had attained the first position
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in productivity of wheat and mustard in the country during the Rabi 2008-09 season, adding that wheat productivity in the State was 46.14 quintals per hectare and mustard productivity 17.38 quintals per hectare.
The target of foodgrain production for Rabi 2009-10 has been set at 117.66 lakh metric tonnes against the actual achievement of 116.78 lakh metric tonnes during Rabi 2008-09.
He directed the Agriculture Department to create awareness among the farmers for adopting the ring-pit method of sugarcane sowing to increase productivity.