ORGANIC CLUSTERS TO BE ESTABLISHED IN GANGA BASIN

A campaign has been launched by the government to clean Ganga and adopt organic farming in 11 districts

Uttar Pradesh Government has mustered its resources to clean the environment, reduce the cost of agriculture, increase the agricultural production and income of the farmers. Yogi government has launched a concerted campaign in this regard in 11 districts of the state. Along with the objective of cleaning the Ganga, organic farming is also being done on both the banks of River Ganga in these 11 districts under the Clean Ganga Mission. Under this project of the government, 21,142 farmers of 11 districts, located along river Ganga from Bijnore to Ballia, have formed 700 organic clusters in an area of 14,000 hectares. The farmers included in these clusters have grown various crops through organic method under Kharif 2020 and Rabi 2020-21 seasons.

According to Kamta, a farmer from Balia, he received all assistance from the government in growing, reaping and packing the organic products and got good price of their produce. These products were displayed in the stalls of fairs, exhibitions and seminars organised at various occasions. Farmers have so far sold organic products worth Rs 2.76 crore from this project. In view of the success of this three year project in the first year, the state government is going to start the second phase of this project soon. Of the total project cost of Rs 71.40 crore, an amount of Rs 21.05 crore has been spent. It is worth mentioning that the state government, in order to double the income of the farmers, has created many facilities which included impetus to organic farming, switch to profitable crops and diversification in agricultural methods.