Chandigarh: The steps taken by the Haryana government to motivate the farmers to go in for crop diversification has shown encouraging results.
During the year 2009-10, the area under vegetable cultivation touched 3,00,860 hectares and production crossed the 40 lakh metric tonnes mark.
Apart from this, farmers were also taking keen interest in replacing their traditional crops with other commercial horticulture crops like fruits, flowers and spices, an
official spokesman said here today.
He said during the current financial year up to February, 2011, fruit production of over 3.19 lakh metric tonnes was achieved by bringing 3,135 hectares of additional area under fruit cultivation, translating in an increase in the total area to 44,585 hectares.
Over 38.85 lakh metric tonnes of vegetables were produced by bringing over 3.18 lakh hectares of area under vegetable cultivation, he said.
Furthermore, 57,155 metric tonnes of spices were produced through cultivation over an area of 13,955 hectares, he said.
Medicinal plants and flowers were grown over an area of 845 hectares and 5,835 hectares, respectively, during the same period, the spokesman said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 15:48