NITI Aayog's National Workshop on Innovative Agriculture | 26 Apr 2022

Why In News?

• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath virtually attended the National Workshop on Innovative Agriculture organized by NITI Aayog at Vigyan Bhawan in 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. In the first technical session on natural farming in the states, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also shared his views virtually.
• In a big way to promote natural farming and innovative agriculture, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said rs 82.83 crore has been sanctioned by the Government of India for 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh under the Centrally Funded Scheme of Natural Farming.
• The chief minister said at the National Workshop on 'Cow Based Natural Farming and Innovative Agriculture' that the scheme will cover an area of about 38,670 hectares. The scheme will be implemented for a period of three years starting from the kharif season this year.
• The Chief Minister said that Bundelkhand region has traditionally been practicing natural farming in various forms. To give this a further boost, the state government has proposed to set up clusters of 500-1,000 hectares in all the 47 development blocks of all the seven districts of the region. In the next five years, an area of about 47,000 hectares will be targeted at a project cost of Rs 175.46 crore, benefitting 1.17 lakh farmers.
• In the year 2020-21, Uttar Pradesh has become the largest food producing state in the country by achieving a record production of 619.47 lakh metric tones.
• Highlighting the importance of natural farming, the Chief Minister said that the objective of increasing the income of farmers has to be fulfilled along with increasing the production as well as providing proper nutrition for the conservation of natural resources and environment and nurturing human health. One way to achieve all these diverse goals is cow-based natural farming.
• Cow-based natural farming means low-cost and poison-free farming. The major dependence of the rural economy on the 'go lineage' is, while agriculture is being mechanized, the utility of bulls in the agricultural economy has also been realised.
• In the last two years, the state government has been able to promote natural farming by 10 km of river Ganga. A campaign has been launched to adopt natural farming within the scope of and 10 km of river Ganga in selected districts under Namami Gange. Horticulture and agroforestry have also been included in natural farming. More than two lakh farmers will be benefited from this programme.
• Organic farming was being promoted in the state during the last three years under namami gange and the Traditional Agriculture Development Scheme, covering an area of 75,680 hectares with the formation of 4,784 clusters, benefiting 1.75 lakh farmers.
• Under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), Rs 50,000 per hectare has been provided for organic farming for a period of three years, including an incentive of Rs 31,000 per hectare.