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Tag: Natural Farming

  • Centre to assist Odisha in pure farming: Tomar

    By Express News Service

    BHUBANESWAR: Natural farming is making regular progress within the nation and farmers in Odisha must also go for it to keep up the fertility of the soil and enhance agricultural manufacturing, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stated on Sunday. 

    Addressing the Argus Agri Vikas Conclave 2022 right here, Tomar stated the Centre will lengthen all assist to the farmers in practising the standard farming technique which is free from any fertiliser of chemical use. He stated after the success of chemical and natural farming within the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has additionally been emphasising on pure farming. 

    “In December last year, the Prime Minister launched a natural farming mission. Currently, natural farming is being successfully done in more than 4 lakh hectares across the country and farmers have immensely benefited from it. Farmers will be sensitised and the plan is to increase the coverage to 38 lakh hectares,” Tomar stated. 

    The Union Minister expressed his happiness that Odisha is among the many main states shifting on this course. “Over 24,000 hectares of agricultural land in Odisha falls under natural farming. I will appeal to farmers from Odisha to go for natural farming. Centre will stand shoulder to shoulder with them,” he stated. 

    Tomar stated regardless of the adversarial impression of the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s agriculture sector recorded a development of three.9 per cent which was potential as a result of agriculture-friendly insurance policies of the Centre and the laborious labour of the farming group. 

    Use of know-how in agriculture can also be being promoted to spice up manufacturing and improve the expansion price. Digital Agri Mission is a step on this course the place use of moblie software, AI and drone know-how is being inspired, he stated. 

    The Minister added Centre can be spending Rs 6,865 crore to present hand-holding assist to small and marginal farmers to scale up their operations utilizing know-how. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) DG Trilochan Mohapatra stated know-how interventions can propel Odisha’s development within the agriculture sector to double-digit. 

    He stated promotion of crop range and local weather resilient varieties will assist in rising farmers’ revenue.
    Former Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra and Editor-in-Chief of Argus News additionally spoke on the occasion.

  • Union Budget 2022-23: Farmers chilly to pure farming proposal; say not viable

    Deepak Bhise is just not too impressed with the push for “chemical-free natural farming” in Nirmala Sitharaman’s newest finances. This 4-acre vegetable farmer from Yedgaon village in Pune district’s Junnar taluka claims to have burnt his fingers by attempting out such strategies of cultivation 10 years again.
    “I was able to harvest hardly 3 tonnes per acre of tomatoes, as against my average of 15-20 tonnes from regular farming. Forget making money, I could not even recover my input costs,” says the 36-year-old. He alleged that the federal government was attempting to divert consideration from rising prices of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which has already made agriculture much less worthwhile. “This (natural farming) will make it totally unviable,” he added.

    In her finances speech, Sitharaman mentioned that chemical-free farming will probably be promoted all through the nation, beginning with fields inside a 5-km broad hall alongside the Ganga River. Further, states could be inspired to revise the syllabi of agricultural universities “to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management”.
    Ganesh Nanote, a cotton and soyabean grower from Nimbhara village in Barshitakli taluka of Maharashtra’s Akola district, concurs with Bhise. “The Green Revolution made India self-sufficient in food grain. The government, on one hand, wants us to also become atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in pulses and oilseeds. But on the other hand, it is propagating methods that will reduce yield. Natural farming means going back on the progress we have made,” he factors out.

    Chemical-free farming entails cultivation utilizing farmyard manure, cow and buffalo dung, urine vermin-compost and different such pure components, as an alternative of urea, di-ammonium phosphate and different artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Votaries of this methodology of cultivation insist that it results in enchancment of soil well being and decreased money outgo for farmers.
    “All that may be true. But how will we be compensated for lower yields? Natural farming is what our great-grandparents were doing. If the government wants us to do the same, it should come out with a roadmap so that we can divert area from chemical to non-chemical-based agriculture in phases. And during this period of shift, we should be provided financial support since yields are bound to fall,” says Paramjit Singh, a 5-acre farmer from Parvez Nagar village of Punjab’s Kapurthala district.

    Charanjit Singh Aulakh, who heads the School of Organic Farming on the Punjab Agricultural University in Punjab, made a distinction between “organic farming” and “natural farming”. In natural farming, farmers additionally use non-chemical fertilisers/manure, bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides which can be sourced from exterior. In pure farming, nothing that’s off-field can be utilized. Everything, together with cow dung and urine formulations/cultures, has to return from throughout the identical farm.
    “They (the proponents) say that the requirement of up to 30 acres can be met from a single cow. Organic farming can be more viable, but yields even here are only 35-50% of normal in the first year and 75-80% in the fourth or fifth year. For this period of low yields, farmers have to be given some financial support, especially when creating a market for such niche produce is not going to be easy,” he notes.
    Interestingly, Subhash Palekar, the Padma Shri awardee and authentic proponent of zero-budget pure farming (ZBNF), didn’t sound very enthusiastic concerning the newest finances proposal. Palekar, who is predicated out of Amravati in Maharashtra, had shot to fame when Sitharaman’s 2019-20 finances had talked about about ZBNF and the way it may “help in doubling our farmers’ income”.

    However, Palekar mentioned that the Narendra Modi authorities was solely “talking about this method of farming, but has not contacted me to understand it fully”.
    The time period “zero-budget”, he added, is deceptive. “I have dropped it a long time back in favour of Subhash Palekar Natural Farming. Ye the finance minister continues to call it zero-budget, which is wrong,” he informed The Indian Express.

  • Special initiative of Gayatri Parivar, advantages of pure farming will likely be instructed to farmers on June 30, agricultural scientists will give coaching

    Apart from chemical farming in Chhattisgarh, particular initiative has been taken by Gayatri household to advertise pure farming. An on-line workshop on pure farming has been organized by All World Gayatri Pariwar on thirtieth June. Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey would be the chief visitor within the workshop. Dr. Chinmay Pandya will preside over the Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya Haridwar. In the workshop, details about the advantages and advantages of pure farming will likely be given by agricultural scientists and specialists. Chhattisgarh Zone Coordinator Dilip Panigrahi stated that the workshop was primarily attended by Dr. OP Sharma, Central Zonal Incharge Shantikunj, Dr. DP Singh Organic Farming Natural Farming Specialist, Yogendra Giri Water Farming Specialist, Dr. RK Gupta Natural Farming Specialist, Sukhdev Nirmalkar Zone Coordinator. Farmers of Chhattisgarh province Shantikunj and Chhattisgarh province will likely be concerned.