Promotion of Cow Shelters for Natural Farming

Government of India is promoting natural farming since 2019-20 under Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhti (BPKP), a sub scheme of Prampargat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY). Natural farming is chemical free farming based on the integrated agriculture and animal husbandry approach using livestock and local resources. It is largely based on on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, use of on-farm cow dung-urine formulations from local livestock. About 4.09 lakh ha. area under 8 states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are covered under the BPKP scheme. Government now intends promote natural farming in a mission mode with due focus on farm production of livestock based natural farming inputs like Beejamrut, Jeevamrut, Neemastra etc. In the Budget Speech 2023-24, it has been announced that “over the next 3 years, 1 crore farmers will be facilitated to adopt natural farming. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres (BRC) will be set-up”. These BRCs will be set up for continuous supply of local livestock based natural farming inputs.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

 

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