Shimla, Dec. 24 -- Reiterating state government's commitment to promote natural farming, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhum, after returning from New Delhi on Tuesday said that agriculture continues to be the backbone of the state, with nearly 90% of the population residing in rural areas and about 53.95% directly dependent on farming and allied activities.

He said that strengthening the rural economy was the foremost priority of the present state government and that for the first time in the history of Himachal, a series of bold and decisive steps have been taken to ensure the economic empowerment of farmers and rural households, including the introduction of minimum support price for produce grown through natural farming, the notif...