Friday, August 03, 2012

Policy-STATE

At the recently concluded India-Japan Global Partnership Summit in Tokyo, Haryana’s Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, made a strong pitch for investment in his State. In an exclusive interaction with B&E, Hooda says the state’s strong industrial base, infrastructure and agriculture are its drawing card.

While other states like Gujarat have also been fairly successful in attracting investments through investor-friendly policies, Haryana has earned itself a special place in the area of agricultural productivity as well. In July this year, Prime minister Manmohan Singh awarded Haryana the Krishi Karman Award for being the best performing state in terms of wheat production for the year 2010-11. As per the citation, Haryana has been awarded ‘for exemplary work in supporting farmers of the state and for achieving highest productivity and production of wheat during 2010-11’. Haryana also happens to be the first and the only state in the country to have ensured 100% treatment of certified seeds of wheat produced by the government as well as seeds from private producers during 2010-11. The entire cost on seed treatment was also borne by the state government.

Hooda has also been consistently working towards increasing food productivity in the country, having been appointed by the Centre to lead the Working Group on Agriculture Productivity in India. Speaking about the steps that his government has taken to improve food productivity in the state, Hooda says, “A special campaign was launched to educate farmers regarding the fungal disease ‘Yellow rust’ and control measures were taken on a war-footing. As a result of the initiatives taken, there has been a record production of 11.630 million metric tonne of wheat in 2010-11 and the productivity has also reached the highest ever level of 4,624 kg. per hectare in the state.” Some of the other initiatives taken by the government for increasing food productivity include mapping village-level soil fertility, water management, promotion of resource conservation technologies and increase in the seed replacement rate.

Still, the absence of inclusive growth has often been a point cited by critics of the government. Hooda, however rubbishes these claims outright. “Look, I am a farmer’s son and I understand the problems that the poor have to struggle with,” he says. His government has installed several power projects and set up Information Technology and Information Systems (ITIs) in the remotest of towns and many of these are already operational. To give a boost to the state’s strong agricultural growth, the government has also started imparting agricultural training and providing the right quality of seeds and irrigation facilities. The response, especially from farmers, has been very promising. After all, what farmers need is the right kinds of seeds and good irrigation services. The people of Haryana are a laborious lot and Hooda’s policies are helping them to move up on the productivity scale – both in business and agriculture.


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