The idea of Mera Paani, Meri Virasat’ scheme launched by Haryana can be implemented across water-stressed states for sustainable agriculture. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· To save water and for better implementation of its crop diversification plans, the government of Haryana launched the ‘Mera Paani, Meri Virasat’ scheme.
· It was meant to encourage farmers change their cultivated-crop preferences—from paddy to maize/cotton/millet/pulses or fruit trees (less water-intensive crops), with a primarily focus on maize—for 1 lakh hectares of land of the state.
· Under this scheme, farmers switching from paddy to other crops for more than 50% of their kharif 2019-20 paddy acreage by the end of the current financial year will be provided Rs 7,000 per acre as diversification-cost support.
· Under the diversification scheme, the grants are estimated to cover 40-50% of the costs for farmers diversifying at least 50% of their last-year paddy acreage; agricultural lands of gram panchayats in various blocks of the state will not be permitted for cultivation of paddy.
· The Har Khet Ko Pani initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) is going to face a major challenge in the coming years (if emergency steps aren’t taken by state governments) as every year, the groundwater level is falling by almost about 1 metre due to indiscriminate usage of water in paddy cultivation, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana.
· The root causes for overexploitation of water are the vicious circle of farming of rice-wheat and the price/procurement support as well as power subsidies given by many state governments
· However, a diversification benefit that doesn’t cover 100% of the costs—especially against the backdrop of absent procurement/price support hitherto and uncertainty over future procurement—may not work.
