agriculture department, green manuring

June 28 - With a view to promote green manuring, HaryanaAgriculture Department has a plan to distribute 33,600 quintals ofDhaincha seed involving an investment of over Rs six crore to cover2.80 lakh hectares of area during the current financial years.While stating this here today, a spokesman of Agriculture Departmentsaid that it would also help in restoring the health of soil andreduce use of chemical fertilizers. He said that 31,299 quintals ofDhaincha seed costing Rs 4.84 crore was provided to farmers free ofcost to cover an area of 2.60 lakh hectares under green manuringduring the last financial year.He said that the Department has a plan to organise 1050 schools onKharif and 50 on Rabi crops during the current financial year toimpart training to farmers on judicious use of chemical fertilizers,pesticides and weedicides. During the last financial year, 908Farmers' Field Schools were organised for Kharif and 30 for Rabicrops. These schools had benefitted more than 28,000 farmers.He said that the farmers were also being educated to make increasedused of sprinkler and drip irrigation methods for agriculture. Bothagriculture and horticulture departments were implementing schemes toprovide subsidy to farmers to install sprinkler sets.The sprinkler sets have been found very suitable in south-westernregion of the State as in that area the soil is sandy and thetopography undulating. The drip irrigation system have been found tobe very suitable for horticultural and vegetable crops. He said thatthe Department of Horticulture was also implementing a Centrallysponsored Micro Irrigation Scheme under which 50 per cent subsidy wasbeing given to install drip and sprinkler systems. During the lastfinancial year, 2012 sets of sprinkler irrigation were distributedamong the farmers with a subsidy of 50 per cent.He said that the Department has succeeded in reducing the area undersummer paddy (Saathi) from 40,000 hectares to merely 488 hectares asthis water guzzling crop consumes 5500 liters of water for everykilogram of rice produced. This has been made possible by motivatingthe farmers. This crop was being transplanted in the month of May, headded.