Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Friday directed the Agriculture Department to identify pockets measuring 100 to 200 acres of contiguous land along the gaushalas having sizable number of cows, to promote organic farming in Haryana.
It has been decided to declare one pocket organic in the swaran jayanti year of Haryana, the Chief Minister said.
Manohar Lal issued the directions while addressing a workshop on the Promotion of Gausamwardhan and Organic Farming here.
Farmers adopting organic farming in place of ordinary farming are being provided assistance at the rate of Rs 20,000 per acre after a period of three years, he said.
Stressing the need for promoting milk of desi (indigenous) cows, the Chief Minister directed officers that aggressive marketing strategy be adopted to increase the processing capacity of A2 milk of desi cow from 5,000 litres to 20,000 litres per day.
At present, 5,000 litres of A2 milk is being processed at the milk plant, Kurukshetra. An aggressive marketing strategy should be adopted to increase it to the plant capacity of 20,000 litres, he said.
There is lot of demand for A2 milk in the state and it has been proved that ingredients available in the milk of desi cow are beneficial in curing various diseases. As part of the marketing strategy, the department concerned could also introduce tetra packs of A2 milk to further increase its sale at various VITA booths across the state, said the Chief Minister.
He also asked the department to prepare a strategy for the promotion of (Gomutra) cow urine in consultation with the Department of Ayurveda. A team comprising officers of the department concerned would visit other states to study the practices adopted by organizations involved in this work so that these could be replicated in Haryana to popularize the Panchagavya (cow) products.
Besides, the State Government is also considering a proposal related to power generation in gaushalas through bullock driven power devices.
Bhani Ram Mangla, chairman of Haryana Gau Seva while talking to the mediapersons, said that we are working on proposals to make the gaushalas self sustainable and economically viable. We have proposed using method of electric generation with the movement of a pair of bulls. Besides, the government is also working on many other proposals including use of solar power, production of bio-gas in gaushalas.
Recently, the State Government had formulated standard operated procedures (SOPs), which has to be adopted by all gaushalas for respectable upkeep of cattle.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat while speaking at the seminar stressed the need for conservation and breeding of stray cows.
“Today, there are lakhs of cows in the gaushalas but only ten per cent cows give milk. District level camps should be organized to conduct medical check-up of cows and nandis (bull) before they were kept in gaushalas,” said he.
Besides, training programmes should be organized for the caretakers of gaushalas for improving the breed of cows, said Dev Vrat while offering all support and cooperation to Kurukshetra Gurukul for this purpose.
Speaking on the occasion, Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, OP Dhankar, said that Haryana had a livestock of 80 lakh out which 18 lakh were cows. Several steps have been taken by the State Government for the promotion and conservation of cows in the state. Fifty per cent subsidy is given for setting up dairies housing up to five cows and a budget of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for this purpose, he said.
Apart from this, Haryana is the first state where A2 milk of desi cow is being processed. The State Government is committed to promoting organic farming and gaushalas would be made the centre for this, the Minister added.
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