Haryana to set up a network of community radio stations

Chandigarh:The Haryana government has decided to set up a network of community radio stations in different districts of the state to provide timely and need-based information concerning the agriculture sector.

To begin with, the first-such community radio station has been set up in Hisar and has been made operational to provide the latest information concerning the farm sector.

“Stations in other districts, too, will come up soon,” Minister of State for Agriculture Sukhbir Kataria said here today.

He said Haryana's wheat productivity of 46.24 quintals per hectare and mustard productivity of 18.69 quintals per hectare during 2010-11 is the highest in the country.

“Haryana is the second-highest contributor of wheat to the central foodgrain pool. It is also a leading state in the production of aromatic basmati rice and more than 60 per cent export of this rice (export) is undertaken from Haryana,” he said.

Kataria said in view of the decline in area under sugarcane from 1.40 lakh hectares in 2007-08 to 72,000 hectares in 2009-10, the state government has taken a series of initiatives to incentivise the farmers for growing sugarcane in the state.

The state government has enhanced the sugarcane price to Rs 231, Rs 226 and Rs 221 per quintal for early, medium and late maturing varieties of sugarcane, respectively, in the 2011-12 crushing season, the minister said.

The state government has constituted a state farmers' commission with a specific mandate to rejuvenate the agriculture sector, he added.