Union minister urges all stakeholders to promote organic farming

Union Minister Parshottam Rupala on Wednesday urged all stakeholders to play a pivotal role in promoting organic farming in the northeast region. Addressing a workshop on Soil Health Card and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for north east region, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture appreciated the activities of all stakeholders for the development of agriculture in the region through soil health card scheme and organic mission.

He urged the concerned officials, Kisan Vikas Kendras (KVKs) and farmers to intensify their efforts through a holistic approach for improving soil health leading to enhanced productivity, profitability and sustainability in agriculture.

The minister said he was happy to learn that some states in the region initiated steps for exporting organic agricultural products such as fruit, vegetable and spice crops to other countries. Rupala also emphasised that successful implementation of soil health scheme is one of the major strategies for achieving the primary goal of doubling farmers income by 2022 by reducing the input cost of cultivation.

The minister urged upon all stakeholders of this region to play a pivotal role to promote organic farming through judicious use of fertilizers as per prescription provided in the soil health cards. He also congratulated Trinity Saioo, a Padmashree awardee on her remarkable achievement towards the development of agriculture and enhancement of income of farmers in Meghalaya.

The workshop was organised by ICAR-ATARI, Umiam in collaboration with ICAR RC for NEH Region. It was attended by the officials of all the states of north east region, scientists from ICAR RC for NEH Region and ICAR-ATARI, staffs of KVKs, progressive farmers. The additional secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Dr Alka Bhargava said that soil health card should be used as a medium to promote organic agriculture in the region.

She said that this scheme could act as a medium for checking the pattern of jhum cultivation in the region by strengthening the jhumia farmers. The additional secretary mentioned the importance of training programmes for potential farmers in the states so that they may act as master trainers for other farmers in agriculture development. Dr Bidyut C Deka, Director, ICAR-ATARI Umiam also presented a brief overview of achievements, outcome and impact of the soil health card scheme of the institute which is being implemented across the states of north east India through KVKs.