Shimla, Feb 3 : After procuring and marketing naturally grown maize, the Himachal Pradesh government would now procure naturally produced wheat.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday launched a simplified registration form to streamline the procurement directly from farmers during a meeting to list the priorities for legislators.

He said that the form could be filled online or offline by the farmers.

The Chief Minister said that interested farmers could now connect with natural farming easily by filling out this form.

"The registration forms, which will generate specific information about the land, crops grown, breed of animals kept by the farmers and some other details regarding training in natural farming, will be distributed amongst farmers in all panchayats," he said.

CM Sukhu said this will give further impetus to natural farming in 2025-26.

He said the government has procured 398.976 metric tons of naturally grown maize from 1,508 farmers at Rs 30 per kg, the highest minimum support price (MSP) in the country. He said that a similar procedure would be adopted to procure naturally produced wheat in the coming season at an MSP of Rs 40 per kg. He said that one kg and five kg packets of the naturally produced maize flour are available under the brand name 'Him Bhog' and 38.225 metric tons of maize flour has been sold through 1,054 Fair Price shops and 73.52 metric tons have been sold through wholesale units of the HP State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd till February 1.

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Chander Kumar said the department would verify the forms filled up by the farmers in the field. He said the form will be connected to the CETARA-NF (Certified Evaluation Tool of Agriculture Resources Analysis of Natural Farming) portal of PK3Y.

/IANS