Chandigarh, May 13: As part of plans to encourage diversification of agriculture in view of the impact of WTO, the Haryana agriculture department has prepared an action plan to divert areas from rice and wheat during next the three years. "In case of Kharif, an area of one lakh hectares would be diverted during the current year, two lakh hectares in the year 2004 and three lakh hectares in the year 2005," an official spokesman of the department said here today. Fruits and vegetables would be given a thrust in the entire state, he said adding special campaigns were being launched to divert areas from cereal crops, especially paddy and wheat to high value cash crops. He said that areas have been identified for diversification in Sirsa, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, Faridabad, Hisar, Ambala, Kaithal, Panipat and Jind for Kharif pulses including Arhar, Mash, Moth, Guar and Moong. In case of Maize, the areas had been identified in Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Karnal and in case of Cotton, the areas would be Fatehabad, Sirsa, Jind, Rewari and Mahendragarh, he added.

The department had succeeded in reducing the area under summer paddy (Sathi) from 85,000 hectares in Kharif 2000 to 22,000 hectares in Kharif 2002, the spokesman said.

Similarly, the area under main Paddy crop was also brought down from 10.54 lakh hectares to 9.06 lakh hectares. About 50,000 hectares of area had been diverted from Wheat to Barley, Lentils and Rapeseed Mustard during Rabi, 2002-2003.

Bureau Report