Chandigarh: Horticulture, floriculture, vegetable cultivation and fish farming — Haryana's agricultural fields that contributed significantly to the country's Green Revolution are now gradually diversifying to newer areas.
Farmers in the state, who are diversifying from the routine wheat-paddy cycle of crops, say they find the new farming activities more beneficial, especially in terms of the returns.
"Horticulture crops, vegetables, flowers and fish farming are newer areas that Haryana farmers are getting into," Dhanpat Singh, a farmer based near Kurukshetra town, 110 km from here, told IANS.
"The returns in these areas are much better and farmers do not have to wait endlessly to get their payments as most of the produce is sold to the organised sector like the hospitality industry," he added.
The farming community in Haryana is exploring newer activities even as the state and its neighbour Punjab remain the foodgrain states of the country, contributing over 70 per cent of the buffer stock of foodgrains, mainly wheat and rice, to the national kitty.
Officials of the state's horticulture department say the area under horticulture crops is increasing in Haryana.
"The area under horticulture crops in Haryana has reached about 5.64 per cent of the total cropped area due to the state government's drive to motivate farmers to grow them in place of traditional crops," a senior horticulture department official said here.
This year, 41,710 tonnes of spices were produced through cultivation over an area of 6,125 hectares. Medicinal plants and flowers were grown over an area of 750 hectares and 5,035 hectares respectively during the same period.
With farmers in some parts of the state, especially in areas near Karnal town, 135 km from here, shifting to fish farming by creating ponds in their agriculture fields, Haryana has recorded an annual growth rate of 12.5 per cent in fish production.
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