Question : Data of Farmers

(a) whether the Government maintains any data of the number of farmers practicing natural and organic agricultural systems in the country;
(b)if so, the details thereof including their percentage in each State;
(c) whether the Government has proposed or proposes to take any measures to increase the incentives available for the farmers taking up organic and natural farming and if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the Government has made some efforts to increase the procurement of manure besides other organic fertilizers for the use of the farmers; and
(e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a)to (b ): Government maintains data of organic farmer registered under PGS-India programmeon PGS – India portal (https://pgsindia.ncof.gov.in) for PGS certification whereas the data of NPOP certification farmers are maintained through TraceNet. As on date, 1192217numbersoffarmers are practicing organic farming under Participatory Guarantee System (PGS India) and1602505number offarmers are registered in TraceNet under third party certification.State/ UT wise details of farmers registered under PGS-India and under TraceNetNPOP is given at Annexure- I.

(c) to (e) Government has been implementing dedicated schemes of Paramparagat Krishi VikasYojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) to promote and popularise chemical input free farming among farmers. Under the schemes, assistance is provided for cluster formation, training of farmers, organic input procurement/ on-farm preparation, post harvest management including marketing. Farmers are provided subsidy of Rs 31000/ ha / 3 years under PKVY and 32500/ ha/ 3 years under MOVCDNER for various organic inputs including organic manure. A budget of Rs 650 crores is allocated for the financial year 2021-22 to promote organic/ bio input based organic farming in the country.
Government has also been implementing BhartiyaPrakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi VikasYojana (PKVY) since 2020-21 for the promotion of traditional/ natural indigenous practices by utilization of agricultural waste and animal dung. The scheme mainly emphasizes on exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching; use of cow dung-urine formulations and other plant-based preparations. Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs 12200/ha for 3 years is provided for cluster formation, capacity building and continuous handholding by trained personnel, certification and residue analysis. As of now, an area of 4.09 lakh ha has been covered in 8 states. The details is given at Annexure II.