Harned village of Hamirpur adopted natural farming, became a model village

Hamirpur, 02 November (HS). The indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and highly toxic pesticides is not only poisoning our soil, water, and air but is also having a serious impact on our health and environment. Cancer and many other fatal diseases are continuously increasing and the fertility of agricultural land is also getting affected. In view of these problems, the Himachal Pradesh government under the leadership of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has resolved to promote natural farming.

As part of the efforts of the state government, not only grants are being provided to the farmers but minimum support price has also been declared for the crops grown through natural farming. These prices are higher than those of crops grown through chemical farming, which is motivating farmers towards natural farming.

All 62 farmer families of Harned village of Bafrain Gram Panchayat of Hamirpur district have decided to adopt natural farming.

According to Dr. Nitin Kumar Sharma, Director of Atma Project of Agriculture Department, initially 26 farmers of the village were given two-day training and after that they were given special training at Agricultural University, Palampur. Subsidy was also provided to farmers to purchase indigenous breed of cows so that they could prepare natural farming products like Jeevamrit and Bijamrit themselves.

Farmers of Harned are now conserving nutritious and organic grains by growing maize, kodra, kultha, mash, ranghi, sesame, ginger, turmeric, and many traditional crops. These crops are getting better prices in the market. For example, in the Kharif season, the price of maize was Rs 30 per kg, which earlier was generally available at Rs 18-20 per kg.

Thus, Harned village of Hamirpur is now emerging as a model village, and with the encouragement of the state government, this model has become a source of inspiration for other villages also.