Mumbai: State chief minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday said Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Organic Farming Campaign was established to promote organic farming in Maharashtra to prevent farmer suicides and assured that efforts are being made to make organic farming a form of mass movement.
Shinde participated through virtual system in National Organic Farming and Digital Farming workshop organised at New Delhi.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Chief Ministers of various states were present on the occasion.
On this occasion Shinde said , certified organic farming is practiced in an area of about 5.27 lakh hectares in the state. 10 lakh hectares of land including tribal areas in the state are under natural farming and organic farming is being promoted through the Centre’s Agricultural Development Scheme and Indian Natural Farming System Scheme.
Efforts are underway in the state for science-based organic farming to reduce the use of chemical drugs and fertilizers.
The Chief Minister said an independent certification body of the state government is being set up to certify natural and organic farming at a moderate cost to the farmers.
To start Masters Trainer Program for Organic Farming and Digital Farming, so far 61,000 farmers from 1628 farmer groups have been trained in the state.
Balasaheb Thackeray Smart Project and MAGNET project with the help of Asian Development Bank has been implemented to create agribusiness and develop the value chain of agricultural products,he added.
Efforts are being made for digital agriculture and said digitization of land record information of 2,22,45,901 farmers in the state has been completed, he added.
