DW BUREAU / CHANDIGARH The Haryana government, while taking an important step in the interest of the farmers of the state, has prepared a special scheme for those farmers who use micro-irrigation. With the formulation of this scheme, where on one hand the farmers can ensure more production of crops consuming less water with a micro-irrigation system hence saving water on the other hand expenditure on irrigation of crops would also be reduced. For all such farmers who wish to take advantage of the scheme, a portal has been developed by the State government, on which the farmers can register and apply for the installation of a micro-irrigation system. Sharing more information in this regard, Chief Engineer, Micro Irrigation and CADA, Bijender Singh Nara said that while following the directions given by the Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Farmers' Welfare and Agriculture Minister J.P Dalal farmers are being encouraged to adopt micro-irrigation systems. He said that the Additional Chief Secretary, Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Sh. Devender Singh and Administrator MICADA Sh. Pankaj has directed the officers of the Irrigation Department and officers of the Micro Irrigation Project to connect the farmers with the micro-irrigation system as per the target set by the government. The officers have been further directed that more and more farmers should be made aware in this regard and construction and installation of ponds, solar pumps, mini sprinklers/drips for micro-irrigation should also be ensured, shared Sh. Bijender Singh Nara. He said that farmers can take advantage of this scheme individually and also as a group of at least four farmers. Individual farmers will be given a 70 per cent subsidy on the construction of the water tank, 75 per cent on the solar pump and 85 per cent on mini sprinkler/drill. Similarly, 85 per cent subsidy will be given to a group of farmers for the construction of a water tank, 75 per cent on the solar pump and 85 per cent on mini sprinkler/drill. Bijender Singh Nara further said that 20 per cent subsidy would be given on completion of water tank excavation, 40 per cent on completion of water tank construction and 40 per cent on the installation of micro irrigation systems in the beneficiary area. The land for 'on-farm ponds' to be used in micro-irrigation will have to be made available to the farmers. He said that 2 kanals of land would have to be made available for an 'on-farm pond' for micro-irrigation on 25 acres of land. Under this scheme, 99 percent of the expenditure for the construction and reconstruction of the Khal will be borne by the government provided the shareholder of Khal is ready to deposit 1 per cent of their share. (editor@dailyworld.in)