Reward farmers for natural practices: CM YS Jagan
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy along with senior officials at his camp office in Tadepalli on Monday taking part in a video-conference on ‘Natural farming’ organised by the NITI Aayog
Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy advocated giving rewards to the farmers who practice natural farming and weightage should be given in the recommendations of the Finance Commission to the states which are implementing natural farming in larger areas.
Participating in a virtual national workshop on Natural Farming which was organised by Niti Aayog on Monday, he said that a policy should be introduced to encourage Natural Farming.
He said the process of certification to natural and organic farming should be farmer-friendly and they should be added as a part of curriculum in Agriculture Universities. He said institutional research should be continued on natural farming and studies should be conducted on the benefits of natural farm products and impact of synthetic chemicals products on health of the people.
He said the allocations of sponsored projects are done in 60:40 ratio by the Central and State Governments and it should be changed to 90:10 for natural farming.
The Chief Minister appreciated the initiative of Niti Aayog for convening the national workshop on innovative agriculture and highlighting the Natural Farming issue. He said there is need for quality harvest of the crop to keep society healthy by reducing the dependency on usage of chemicals in agriculture.
He said natural farming is a critical innovation for improving the livelihoods of the farmers, for protecting food and nutrition security of the people, avoiding chemical intake through the food, regenerating soil, enhancing water conservation and for a wide range of eco-friendly benefits. He said 6.3 lakh farmers have registered for natural farming in 2.9 lakh hectares in 2021-22 and it is being implemented in 5 per cent of the land under cultivation.
He said the Government of Germany had agreed in principle to provide financial aid of 20 million Euros in five years to promote natural farming in the state and will set up Indo German Global Academy on agro ecology research and learning and added that it will work to impart scientific methods in natural farming. He said partnership with international institutions like FAO, UNEP, ICRAF, University of Reading, University of Edinburgh, CIRAD (France), GIZ, KFW and certification to the natural farming products will help increase Natural Farming.
Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajeev Kumar appreciated the efforts of the state government.