Krishi Sakhis to drive natural farming push in Prayagraj
As part of efforts to train women as Krishi Sakhis and help them support and promote natural farming across Uttar Pradesh, earnest efforts have kick-started in Prayagraj too, said district officials.
Deputy director (agriculture), Prayagraj, Pawan Kumar Vishwakarma informed that Krishi Sakhis are being given the responsibility of making farmers aware of natural farming. For this, a list of potential Krishi Sakhis has been sought by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), he added.
We have finalised a programme to train Krishi Sakhis in Krishak Vikas Kendras from May 13. They will be imparted training on topics like natural farming, organic product production, experimental methods, and disease control. During the training, they will also be provided with field demonstrations, visual aids and toolkits. It is starting in 12 clusters in the district, said Vishwakarma.
In every cluster, at least two Krishi Sakhis will be trained for this and given specific responsibilities. If there is no Krishi Sakhi in an agricultural cluster, then a community resource person will be appointed there who has knowledge about it and will be given the responsibility, he shared.
The official said that there are 12 clusters of natural farming in Prayagraj, out of which seven are in the Jasra development block and five in the Bhagwatpur block of the district.
Around 500 hectares of farming is done in each cluster. More than 1,500 farmers are doing natural farming in Prayagraj as of now, he said.
Krishi Sakhis to get financial support
These Krishi Sakhis are being selected from among the self-help groups (SHGs), and their selection has been done by the monitoring committees formed at the district level. Deputy director (agriculture) Pradeep Vishwakarma said that Krishi Sakhis will get ₹5,000 every month to encourage them to discharge their responsibilities. Apart from this, the government will also give a grant of ₹4,000 per year to farmers who adopt natural farming.
Natural farming
Natural farming is a chemical-free agricultural method based on locally available resources.
It promotes traditional indigenous methods that free producers from dependence on external inputs. The major focuses of natural farming are on-farm biomass recycling with biomass mulching, on-farm use of indigenous cow dung and urine, pest management through diversity, on-farm vegetable mixing, and exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs directly or indirectly. Since no synthetic chemicals are used in natural farming, it is less hazardous to health, informed agriculture department officials.
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