The Government of India is promoting natural farming through a sub-scheme namely Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP) under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2019-2020. So far 4.09 lakh hectare area has been brought under BPKP, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare (DA&FW) is undertaking large-scale training of master trainers, champion farmers and practicing farmers on techniques of natural farming through the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) and National Centre of Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF). It has also sensitised the public representative like gram-pradhan on the technique and benefits of natural farming. Study material on 22 regional languages has been prepared and 697 master trainers have been developed on natural farming and 997 training were conducted for 56,952 gram pradhans through MANAGE. In addition, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has initiated research in 20 locations to validate natural farming techniques besides demonstrating in 425 KVKs (Krishi Vikas Kendras) to showcase the benefits of natural farming, the agriculture minister informed the upper house of Indian parliament.
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A digital web portal has been launched to promote natural farming to display information about the implementation framework, resources, implementation progress, farmer’s registration and blogs. Under BPKP, natural farming is being promoted in clusters of 500 hectares and Rs.12,200 is provided per hectare for three years, in which Rs.2000 is provided as incentives to farmers through DBT, he further said.
Under BPKP, to facilitate the marketing of natural farming products, Rs. 2700 per hectare is provided for PGS Certification and Residue Analysis for three years. Farmers can also avail assistance at Rs.8800 per hectare for 3 years from PKVY funds for marketing, value addition and publicity of natural farming products, Tomar informed.
This is a way of chemical-free farming based on locally available resources with no chemical fertilisers and pesticides. For promoting natural farming, farmers are encouraged to adopt natural farming through wide publicity through press and print media, publication of leaflets, booklets, organisation of workshops, exhibitions, farmer fairs and information on state and government of India web portals.
