Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Monday virtually participated in a National workshop on Natural Farming which was organised by Niti Aayog and said a policy should be introduced to encourage Natural Farming.

Speaking on the occassion, the Chief Minister said rewards should be given to the farmers practising natural farming and weightage should be given in the recommendations of Finance Commission to the states which are implementing natural farming in larger areas. He said the process of certification to natural and organic farming should be farmer friendly and they should be added as a part of courses in Agriculture universities. He said institutional research should be continued on Natural farming and studies should be conducted on impact of natural farming products and synthetic chemicals products on health of the people. He said the allocations of sponsered projects are done in 60:40 ratio by Central and State Governments and it should be changed to 90:10 for natural farming.

The Chief Minister appreciated the initiative of Niti Aayog for convening the national workshop on innovative agriculture and highlighting Natural Farming issue. He said there is need for quality reap of the crop to keep the society healthy by reducing the dependency on usage of synthetic chemicals in agriculture and added that natural farming is a critical innovation for improving the livelihoods of the farmers, for protecting food and nutrition security of the people, avoiding chemical intake through the food, regenerating soil, enhancing water conservation and also for a wide range of eco friendly benefits.

He said 6.3 lakh farmers have registered for natural farming in 2.9 lakh hectares in 2021-22 and it is being in practice in 3,009 of 10,778 RBKs and added that is being implemented in five pecent of the land under cultivation. He said RBKs are playing a vital role in extending support to the farmers practising natural farming and added that awareness programmes on natural farming are being held through them.

He said German government has agreed in principle to provide financial aid of 20 Million Euros in five years to promote natural farming in the state and will set up Indo German Global Academy on Agro ecology research and learning and added that it will work to impart scientific methods in natural farming. He said partnership with international institutions like FAO, UNEP, ICRAF, University of Reading, University of Edinburgh, CIRAD ( France), GIZ, KFW and certification to the natural farming products at RBK level will increase Natural Farming.

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajeev Kumar thanked the Chief Minister for taking measures to implement Natural Farming methods in the state and creating a separate division for it in Agriculture department. He said he personally visited RBKs and praised the Chief Minister for the services of the RBKs.

Chief Secretary Dr Sameer Sharma, Chief Minister's Special Chief Secretary Dr K S Jawahar Reddy, Agriculture Special Commissioner C H Hari Kiran and other officials were present in the meeting.

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