Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the government will constitute a board for promoting natural farming in the state.
Provision for promoting natural farming in seven districts of Bundelkhand region has been made in the budget for the current fiscal 2022-23.
Addressing a conclave organised by the World Bank on ‘Uttar Pradesh towards sustainable and equitable growth’ here on Monday, the chief minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid special emphasis on natural farming and the Central government had made budget provision for it.
The Central government has identified five-kilometre area along the banks of river Ganga for promoting natural farming. The UP government, in January 2020, had launched a special campaign Rs Ganga Yatra’ to create awareness about natural farming. UP has identified 27 districts along the course of the river Ganga and seven districts of Bundelkhand region for natural farming.
The chief minister said the question before the government was how to enhance the income of the farmers with low cost of agricultural inputs and the simple answer was natural farming. “If the production goes up and cost is low then income goes up,” he pointed out.
“In India, rishi and krishi are closely linked and complementary to each other. The cow is not an issue of faith but also of economy. The religious customs sustain the economy in the form of natural farming. Two years ago a seminar was organised in Kanpur on natural farming where 500 progressive farmers had participated. It has resulted in natural farming in thousands of hectares of agricultural land,” the chief minister said.
He said the objective of natural farming was toxic free agriculture by reducing the use of fertilisers, chemicals and pesticides and using the inputs produced by the farmers with low or zero cost.
Referring to the negative consequences of the intensive use of chemicals and fertilizers in Punjab, Yogi Adityanath said, “The Cancer Express train running in Punjab is well known and diseases are growing fast with the rise in use of chemicals and fertilisers in agriculture. If humanity and mother earth have to be to be preserved and protected then we have to opt for natural farming. This is the most potent alternative available to the farmers.”
Recalling his days of childhood, the chief minister said there were naturally grown flowers in agriculture fields that were full of fragrance in villages in Garhwali region of Uttarakhand. The fragrance of flowers is so intense that no one is allowed to stay there at night as it can harm the person, he added.
“With the rapid rise in use of fertilisers and chemicals, the flowers may have grown in size but they have lost the fragrance and also the natural and medicinal properties. Same has happened in the case of taste and quality of the food grains. The production has increased with the green revolution and has given rise to many unforeseen consequences,” Yogi Adityanath said.
He said the innovative experiment of natural farming was progressing well in the state and agriculture scientists and progressive farmers would have an important role in expanding the scope of natural farming.
“In a state like UP, farming will immensely increase the income of farmers. UP has the largest number of farmers, most fertile land, which is 11-12 per cent, and abundant water resources. Even as UP is yet to fully deploy the modern agriculture technology, the state is producing 20 per cent food grains of the total food grains produced in the country. If we move forward with scientific approach along with modern agriculture techniques and use the tool of natural farming then we will not only succeed in increasing production but also increase the income of the farmers,” he said.