Chandigarh, Jan 29—Mrs Kiran Choudhry, Leader of the Haryana Congress Legislature Party, has asked the BJP Government to address the issues raised by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) report which blames the poor pace of growth and ‘below expectation’ performance of horticulture cultivation in the state on a number of factors crying for state intervention.

In a statement issued here today, the former excise and taxation minister took potshots at the Manohar Lal Khattar government for talking about doubling the income of the farmers but doing precious little at the ground level. Several factors continue to weigh down heavily on crop yields and expected income of farmers who are still hesitant to divert to horticulture cultivation. The CRRID study evaluates the impact of higher allocation for horticulture from 2014-15 to 2016-17.

“Reading between the lines, one finds that report nailing the failure of higher allocation to make the farmers take to horticultural crops mainly on non-adoption of new technology; poor marketing mechanism to dispose of produce at reasonable prices; inadequate irrigation facilities; initial high cost, lack of awareness, insufficient post-harvest infrastructure, price fluctuations and lack of operational skill and training to add value to the product,” she said.

This shows that the huge money spent on foreign jaunts by delegations led by the Agriculture and Farmer Welfares’ Minister, OP Dhankar, to the US, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand to study latest methods in the field of agriculture and horticulture, has gone waste. Since the horticulture crops declined during the rabi season between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the Manohar Lal Government should be taken immediate course correction to stem and reverse the trend and boost the income of farmers, Mrs. Choudhry demanded.