Enactments made by Himachal Pradesh Government to protect and promote the interests of agrarian society
Agriculture contributes over 45% to the net state domestic product. It is the main source of income and employment in Himachal. Over 93% of the population in Himachal depend directly upon agriculture which provides direct employment to 71% of its people. However agriculture in the state suffers from certain limitations, specially in the production of food grains. One of the reason is that the area under cultivation cannot be extended to any appreciable extent. Reclamation of land on slopes of hills for cultivation of food grains is neither economical nor beneficial. The farmers can profit more by raising cash crops suited to the agro-climatic conditions. Another reason is that reclamation of land from the hills increases the menace of soil erosion.
State sponsored schemes
Quality Seed Multiplication and Distribution
Department owns 36 Seed Farms where foundation seeds of Kharif and Rabi crops are produced. Annually about 3500 to 4000 quintals seed of cereals, pulses and vegetables are produced in these farms. Further about 90,000 quintals of certified seeds of various crops are distributed to the farmers in the state. At present 5 grading centres are in operation for various crops. Under this scheme, expenditure on seed multiplication farms, seed testing and certification, subsidy on cost of seeds and cost on demonstrations etc is incurred.
Manure and Fertilizers
- Distribution of Fertilizers: The State Govt. has allowed cost subsidy on complex fertilizers NPK 12:32:16, NPK 10:26:26 and NPK 15:15:15 @ Rs.1000/-per MT. Apart from this cost subsidy @25% is also being provided on 100% water soluble complex fertilizers to the farmers ( limited to Rs. 2500 per farmer). In order to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers, the Govt. has entrusted this responsibility to HIMFED/Cooperative Societies. The farmers are educated about balanced use of fertilizers and as per soil testing nutrient basis.
- Soil Testing Centres: Soil testing has great importance for raising agriculture production. The department is providing free soil testing facilities to the farmers. Department has 11 Soil Testing Laboratories besides four mobile soil testing labs to provide free soil testing facilities to the farmers. About 1,25,000 samples are analysed annually. Besides this Soil Health Cards are being provided to the farmers. About one lac farmers are being covered every year. Outlay proposed is to meet expenditure on these labs for testing of soil samples. Soil testing service has also being included under H.P. Govt. Public Service Act, 2011 in which the soil health cards are being made available to the farmers through online service within prescribed time limit.
Plant Protection
The Department exercise vigil on pest situation. To overcome this, about 150 MT of pesticides through 991 sale centres are supplied to the farmers. Besides this, Pesticide Testing Laboratory at Shimla has been set up with a capacity of 150 to 250 samples per year. One Bio Control Laboratory has been set up at Palampur where conservation pest situation augmentation, rearing and multiplication of bio-agents and training to extension staff and farmers are being done. Another Bio Control Laboratory has been set up at Mandi and will be made functional very soon. This is a continued scheme and the provision is made for meeting the expenditure on transportation and subsidy on the cost of plant protection material. The plant protection material including equipments are supplied to the SCs / STs /IRDP families at 50% cost. The outlay proposed is to meet expenditure on subsidies.
Agricultural Marketing
This is controlled in the State through H.P. Agricultural and Horticultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005. Under this Act, H.P. State Agricultural Marketing Board has been set-up. At present, 10 market committees are functioning. 53 markets have been made functional. Market information is being disseminated through different media i.e AIR Doordershan print media and through Net to farmers. The work of development of marketing infrastructure is done out of the funds of APMCs. Information on daily market rates is also disseminated through AIR/ DD. Market rates of 39 
commodities are also disseminated through agmarknet.nic.in. The APMC act has been repeated as per the model act and provision has been made for private markets, single point market fee, contract farming etc.
Quality control
Under this scheme, implementation of various acts on seeds, fertilizers and pesticides is ensured.Quality control functionaries have been notified.The Department has three fertilizer testing labs ( Hamirpur, Sundernagar, Shimla), one state pesticides testing lab at Shimla, Biofertilizer and Biopesticide lab at Palampur and three seed testing labs ( Solan, palampur and Mandi ). 2000 fertilizer samples, 300 pesticide and 1200 seed samples are being analysed annually.
Special Project on Diversification of Agriculture through Micro Irrigation and Other Related Infrastructure in H.P.
Although water is a renewable resource, its availability in appropriate quality and quantity in under severe stress due to increasing demand from various sectors. Agriculture is the largest user of water, which consumes more than 80% of the country’s exploitable water resources. The over all development of agriculture sector and indented growth rate of GDP is largely dependent on the judicious use of available water resources, while the irrigation projects have contributed to the development of water resources, the conventional methods of water conveyance and irrigation, being highly inefficient, has led not only to wastage of water but also to several ecological problems like water logging, salinisation and soil degradation making productive agricultural lands unproductive. It has been recognised that use of modern irrigation methods like drip and sprinkler irrigation is the only alternative for efficient use of surface as well as ground water resources. Hence, this project on diversification through micro irrigation and other related infrastructure in HP aims at increasing the area under efficient methods of irrigation viz., drip and sprinkler irrigation. NABARD has sanctioned this project under RIDF- XIV amounting to Rs.198.09 crores starting from 2009-10.
The project components include sprinkler system, drip system, farm tank, shallow well, shallow tube well, deep tube well, small and medium lifts and pumping machinery. For sprinkler and drip systems, the farmers shall be provided 80% subsidy and 20% would be beneficiary’s contribution. Besides this the farmers shall also be provided 50% assistance for creation of farm tank, shallow well, shallow tube well, deep tube well, small and medium lifts and pumping machinery. A farmer can install sprinkler system up to 4 hectares of land whereas for drip up to one hectare. Up to date, 31,224 sprinkler sets have been installed covering an area of 21648.13 ha. and sum of Rs. 9447.32 lakhs has been spent.
Dr. Y. S. Parmar Kisan Sawrozgar Yojna
In order to achieve faster and more inclusive growth in Agriculture sector Government of Himachal Pradesh has started. “Dr. Y. S. Parmar Kisan Swarozgar Yojna” (Poly House and Micro Irrigation). Project components include creation of need based infrastructure and are expected to fulfill objectives of high productivity, quality, safeguard against adverse weather, efficient input use etc. Project components include construction of location specific models of poly houses with micro irrigation facility. For this, 85% project assistance shall be provided to the farmers. Also for creation for water sources individually and collectively by a group of farmers (Low/medium lift, pumping machinery), 50% subsidy shall be provided. The total cost of the project is Rs.111.19 crore which shall be implemented in four years starting from 2014-2015 to 2017-2018. The project envisages construction of 4,700 No’s Poly Houses, 2150 No’s Micro Irrigation Systems of different designs suitable to different agro-ecological situation in the State. Beside this 60 No’s of small lift, 60 No’s of medium lift and 750 No’s of pumping units shall also be established under this project.