Farmers should adopt cluster approach for effective and meaningful organic farming, said S.K.N. Vice Chancellor of Agriculture University, Jobner Prof. Balraj Singh on the occasion of CUTS, a consumer advocacy group at its State Level Stakeholder’s Consultation held at Jaipur on March 14, 2023 under its ongoing project on organic farming consumption education and awareness. In 12 districts of the state of Rajasthan. Singh said that there was a lot of shortage of food grains in the country at the time of green revolution and as a result, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were promoted to increase the production of food grains. In further result to it, the production of food grains got shoot up. In today’s situation, food grains are being produced in large quantities in the country.
Continuing as the second speaker, George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS in his opening remarks said that there is an immense potential of organic farming in the state of Rajasthan. In his initial address, Cheriyan told that Rajasthan is second in terms of area in organic farming, but it has only 2 percent of the organic area in the whole of India. He told that at the global level, India has the fifth place in the area of organic farming and the first place in terms of producers, but only 2.5 percent of the world’s organic farming area. He told that the organization has been working in the field of organic farming for the last ten years and under the project, a target has been set to make model organic village panchayats in 12 districts of the state.
Program Officer of Rajasthan State Seed and Organic Certification Institute, Deepika Saini as special guest informed about the facilities provided by the department to the farmers, who are doing organic farming. She told that keeping in mind the problems of the farmers doing organic farming, the government is making all out efforts to help them and for this, the farmers also needs to work honestly. Deepika emphasized for the need to build consumer confidence regarding organic production by farmers.
Padma Shree Laxman Singh Lapodia, as the chief guest in the programme, showcased his work done by his organization in the field of water conservation in Lapodia village of Dudu area of Jaipur district. The use of water is very important for agriculture, it can be done by conserving the right amount of water, as well as it is useful in organic farming. Singh said that conservation of water also improves the environment in the area, as well as the wild animals and birds living in the area also gets its benefits.
In the beginning of the programme, welcoming all the guests and participants, Deepak Saxena, Associate Director, CUTS informed about the objectives of the project. Rajdeep Pareek, Programme Officer, CUTS gave information through presentation about the activities organized in the project during the current year and described the key highlights and achievements in the field of organic farming in the past ten year.
During the program, the representatives of the organizations involved in the project were appreciated for their work by giving mementos. Progressive farmers, consumers and more than 50 participants from various organizations from 12 districts of Rajasthan participated in the programme. The program was coordinated by Nimisha Sharma, Programme Officer and Dharmendra Chaturvedi, Programme Officer gave vote of thanks.
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For more information, please contact
Nimisha Sharma (94615 53835), Dharmendra Chaturvedi (94142 02868)