Centre to promote traditional, organic farming for sustainable agriculture

The central government has initiated various schemes to promote organic farming keeping in view the benefits if value addition and its importance in fighting the menace of climate change, minister of agriculture Radha Mohan Singh said.

The minister said the government has initiated `Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna & Organic Value Added Development (OVCDNER)' schemes', under National Sustained Agriculture Mission, to promote organic farming in the country.

Speaking at a workshop organised on organic farming at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on Friday, the union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare said that Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY) is the first extensive scheme which has been initiated in the form of centre-sponsored programme (CSP).

State governments are implementing the scheme based on the cluster for every 20 hectare land. Under clusters, the farmers are granted financial assistance for maximum one hectare land and Government of India has earmarked Rs50,000 for every hectare land during the period of transformation of three year ceiling. The objective in this regard has been chalked out for 10,000 of clusters while covering area of 2 lakh hectare land, he said.

Singh said that the agriculture ministry has launched a scheme as Central Regional Scheme – Organic Value Added Mode Development Mission for North-Eastern regions for implementation in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim as well as Tripura during 2015-16 to 2017-18 while keeping in view the potentiality of farming in North-Eastern region.

The scheme, which aims at developing authentic organic products in value added mode and linking producers with consumers across various stages - from input, seed certification to unification, processing, marketing as well as grant formation – will also extend assistance for the entire value added development, he said.

He said the scheme has been approved with Rs400 crore for a span of three years. The Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Unnat Krihsi Khiksha Yojna will fish out the talent of Indian youths and overall development of rural India. This scheme is being implemented by agriculture education division related to Indian Council of Agricultural Research Council (ICAR).

Singh further briefed that under this course of action the trainers will be selected on village level so as to establish training centre, to impart knowledge about natural / organic / sustainable farming / rural economy.

Various training programmes will be conducted in different regions in these centers. Almost 100 training centers will be set up throughout the country for the participation of teachers in various activities for the Advanced India Campaign conducted by Agriculture Research Council / human resource development ministry under this scheme alongwith.

Singh said under an agreement between the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation and the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, organic farming system will be developed under 1,657 clusters in the perspective of `Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna' with `Namami Ganga' project in 1,657 village panchayats from Uttarakhand to West Bengal along the bank of Ganga.