Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi while chairing the review meeting of HP Shiva Project here today said that the interests of the farmers were paramount for the state government. With the aim of benefiting the farmers of the state, an ambitious HP Shiva project amounting to Rs 1292 crore is being implemented in the state covering sectors like horticulture, irrigation, solar fencing in 6000 hectares of cultivable land in 28 blocks of seven districts of the state.
He said that under the scheme, more than 15 thousand farmers would be encouraged for the cultivation of fruits like guava, orange, litchi and plum particularly in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Solan, Sirmaur and Una districts and to provide them a suitable market for their produce.The Horticulture Minister said that under the project, 162 lift irrigation schemes were being constructed for irrigational facilities.
Apart from this, the horticulturalists will be provided with drip irrigation and solar fencing facilities to protect the crops from stray animals. He directed the officials and all the stakeholders to complete the project well in time and to work under the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) besides photographic evidences of the progress being made after site inspections.
He said that all the stakeholders must deploy adequate workforce and machinery in the clusters to ensure quality work and high quality saplings should be made available to the farmers for planting which would pave the way for strengthening their economy as well. The farmers should be made aware about the Shiva project so that more and more farmers could derive benefits from this project.
Secretary Horticulture C. Paulrasu senior officials of Horticulture and Jal Shakti Department were present in the meeting amongst the stakeholders.