Vizianagaram bags SKOCH Award for natural farming

Vizianagaram: The district administration has bagged the SKOCH award for its outstanding performance and attracting huge number of farming towards the module.

On Saturday collector A Suryakumari stated that the concerned agriculture wing with the support of the government is putting its entire efforts to escalate the natural farming system to produce chemical free food crops to provide healthier grains to public.

Around 28, 68 farmers are growing paddy in 25,581 acres, millets in 6,202 acres and fruit crops in 8,191 acres. The number of farmers is escalated from 4,000 to 40,000 and cultivated area is expanded from 1,300 to 16,000 hectares in the past six years. Natural farming started in nine mandals of 50 villages in 2016-17 and now it has reached to 242 villages in 3 mandals of this district.

The farmers are getting high price for their paddy, millets, fruits as the consumers prefer organic grown crops, the collector said. "We have sent entrees for that award in Bio villages-Natural farming' category and the jury announced silver award for district, the collector added.