New Delhi: To promote organic farming, the Government of India has released Rs 92.73 crore to 70026 farmers of Odisha for doing organic farming on 45,800 hectares under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2015-16.
This was informed by Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Anupriya Patel in Rajya Sabha today.
While replying to a question of BJD MP Sulata Deo, the Union Minister said the Government is promoting organic farming in the country, including in the State of Odisha, through various schemes.
Since 2015-16, under PKVY, total fund Rs. 92.73 Cr has been released for 45800 ha area under organic farming involving 70026 farmers for the State, she said.
PKVY is a component of Pradhan Mantri- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY). The PKVY scheme provides end-to-end support to organic farmers i.e. from production to processing, certification and marketing in a cluster based approach.
The primary focus of the scheme is to form organic clusters in a cluster where preference is given to tribal and marginal farmers to help them to create a supply chain.
Under PKVY, States/UTs are provided financial assistance of Rs 31,500 per hectares in total in 3 years in the organic clusters out of which, Rs 15,000 is provided directly to farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for on-farm and off-farm organic inputs including organic fertilizers, Rs 4,500 for marketing, packaging, branding, value addition etc., Rs 3,000 for certification and residue analysis and Rs 9,000 for training and capacity building. One farmer can avail a maximum 2 hectares area under the scheme, she said.
The Centre has also launched Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) scheme, which focuses on promoting natural farming systems that rely on locally available resources, Patel said.
For farmers in the North Eastern States, the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) has been implemented to adopt organic farming with support for the production, procurement, and application of organic and bio-fertilizers.
Besides, the Centre has also launched the National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) under the umbrella of Krishi Unnati Yojana‟s National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) through National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF), she pointed out.
Smt.Patel further said National Center of Organic and Natural Farming and its Regional Centre of Organic and Natural Farming (RCONF) located at Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Bangalore, Imphal and Bhubaneswar are organizing various HRD trainings
In addition to these schemes, in Odisha, the District Level Executive Committee (DLEC) oversees the implementation & monitoring of the scheme in each district. Regular monitoring and reviewing of the scheme’s progress is done through field visits/review meetings by the State Government, she added.