Question : Promotion of Organic Farming

(a) whether the Government has any Scheme to promote organic farming as a form of chemical-free farming, if so, the details thereof State/UT-wise, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan;

(b) whether the Government has taken any initiative to provide assistance in obtaining organic certification to those individual farmers who are not a part of existing organic farming schemes, if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government proposes to come up with an alternate Scheme to reduce the excessive consumption of urea, if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government has formulated/proposed to formulate any scheme for the farmers to promote organic farming in view of increasing demand of our organic agricultural products in global market and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether organic farming increases the productivity and soil fertility and if so, the steps being taken by the Government to promote organic farming;

(f) whether organic farming is costly and if so, whether the Government provides/contemplating to provide assistance to the farmers to reduce this cost: and
(g) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE ???? ??? ????? ?????? ??????
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) to (d): In view of increasing demand of organic agricultural product, Government has been promoting Organic farming as a chemical free farming through dedicated schemes namely Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) since 2015-16. Both the schemes provide support to organic farmers from organic production to certification and marketing including post-harvest management like processing, packaging etc. The details of area and farmers brought under organic farming in various States including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan under PKVY Scheme is given at Annexure-I.

Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) has been introduced as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2020-21 for the promotion of traditional indigenous practices including Natural Farming (NF). 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 plant based preparations. Until now, under natural farming an area of 4.09 lakh ha area has been covered and a total fund of Rs. 4980.99 lakh has been released in 8 States across the country.

Government has initiated programme to provide financial assistance to individual farmers with 8.0 or more hectare land @ 2700/ha for 3 years for Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification through Regional Council or National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) certification.

(e) to (g): Organic Farming enhances soil fertility and crop productivity. The research studies under ICAR-All India Network Programme on Organic Farming indicate that comparable yield or slightly higher yield to that of conventional management can be obtained in kharif and summer crops in 2 to 3 years, while in rabi crops the yield stabilizes after 5 years.
The use of on-farm organic inputs and adoption of Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) model minimizes the use of external inputs to a great extent.

Under PKVY & MOVCDNER schemes farmers are provided financial assistance of Rs 31000/ ha / 3 years and Rs 32500/ ha/ 3years respectively for organic inputs such as seeds, bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides, organic manure, compost/ vermi-compost, botanical extracts etc. In addition to above, support is also provided for group/ Farmers Producers Organization (FPO) formation, training, certification, value addition and marketing of organic produce. 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.