Chief Minister virtually participated in the National Workshop on Innovative Agriculture of NITI Aayog | 26 Apr 2022

Why In News?

• Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan virtually attended the National Workshop on Innovative Agriculture organized by NITI Aayog at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi at The Amrit Mahotsav of Azadi on April 25, 2022.

Key point

• The first session was chaired by Dr. Ravi Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also shared his views virtually.
• Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the Natural Agriculture Development Board has been constituted to promote natural farming in the state. The State Government is taking several steps to create an environment up to the village level to adopt natural farming and to help the farmers in it.
• There are 52 districts in Madhya Pradesh. Initially, special activities will be carried out to encourage natural farming in 100 villages of each district. The current kharif crop will start natural farming activities in 5,200 villages of the state.
• In order to create an environment, state-level workshops will be organized in the state in the month of May for officials of agriculture related departments under the guidance of Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat. So far, 1 lakh 65 thousand farmers of the state have shown interest in natural farming.
• The Chief Minister said that just as subsidy on chemical fertilizers and other assistance was provided to the farmers for the Green Revolution, it is necessary to encourage and cooperate with the farmers to adopt natural farming.
• The desi cow is essential for natural farming. It is from the desi cow that the necessary jeevamrit and dhanjivamrit for natural farming can be made. 900 per month i.e. 10 thousand 800 rupees per annum will be provided to the farmers who adopt natural farming for keeping the desi cow. At the same time, 75 per cent of the amount will be provided to the farmers by the government for taking natural agricultural kits.
• The services of 5 full-time workers will be provided in each development block to guide natural farming. Each village will also have arrangements of kisan mitras and kisan didis, who will act as master trainers of natural farming. Honorarium will also be given to the workers and master trainers.
• It is worth mentioning that Madhya Pradesh is suitable for natural farming, where 17 lakh hectares of tribal dominated area traditionally does not use chemical fertilizers.