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Financial assistance provided for natural farming to get a sizeable boost.
Dec 14, 2022

To expand the area under natural farming, the government will soon announce a substantial increase in the financial assistance provided for promotion of traditional indigenous practices which do not recommend use of chemical fertilisers. Sources told FE that there will be a sizeable increase in financial allocation provided under the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP), a sub-scheme under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) being implemented by the agriculture ministry.

'A cabinet note is being prepared for increasing financial allocation for promotion of natural farming practices,' an agriculture ministry official said.

The government introduced BPKP in 2020-21 where financial assistance of Rs 12,200 per hectare for three years is provided for cluster formation, capacity building and hand-holding by trained personnel, certification and residue analysis. A sum of Rs 56 crore has been provided under the scheme so far.

Officials said that since BPKP was initially launched for three years which would end by the end of current fiscal, there is also a need to enhance incentives for the farmers to shift to natural farming from conventional farming where chemical fertilisers are used to boost soil nutrients. The farming method is expected to reduce dependency on purchased inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides by the farmers without impacting productivity.

BPKP focuses on exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, use of cow dung-urine formulations and other plant-based preparations.

According to the agriculture ministry, 0.5 million hectare (MH) is covered under natural farming mostly in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh has 0.1 MH under natural farming. More than 0.73 million farmers have already initiated natural farming methods.

Other states which have initiated natural farming include Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech for 2022-23 had stated that the government would focus on promoting natural farming on the lands in five km wide corridors along river Ganga. Sitharaman had also said that the states will be encouraged to revise the syllabus of agricultural universities so as to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management.

The Economic Survey (2021-22) had noted ‘in order to sustain agricultural production through eco-friendly processes in tune with nature and ensure chemical free produce and preserve soil productivity, the government is also encouraging farmers to adopt natural farming techniques.’.

Last month, the agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar chaired the first steering committee meeting of the national natural farming mission. Meanwhile, the multi-member committee set up by the agriculture ministry in August is currently deliberating on the issues associated with minimum support prices, crop diversification and promotion of natural farming.

financialexpress.com

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