AHMEDABAD: Despite Central government’s efforts to expand organic farming across India, such a technique has not found any favour with Gujarat. Land under organic farming has not expanded even by an inch in six years, data reveals.
Every year, the government announces the budget for organic farming but fails to motivate the state farmers. In Gujarat, around 960,000 hectares are cultivated, with just 32,092.51 hectares being organically cultivated.
According to official data, organic farming covered 30,092 hectares in 2014-2015, and it expanded by 2,000 hectares in 2015-2016. Following that, from 2016 to 2022, organic farming land did not rise at all.
The Central government launched the ‘Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana’ (PKVY) to promote organic farming. Gujarat has already developed its own organic farming strategy, which appears to have failed to attract farmers to organic farming.
There are 10,27,865 organic agricultural farmers in the country under PKVY, with Gujarat’s farmer’s name missing. As per a Lok sabha answer on March 21, 2023, the Centre has not released any funds for Gujarat in 2021-22 under the PMKY scheme following slow progress in utilizing PMKY funds.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Parthiv Raj Kathwadia said according to the Lok Sabha reply, Rs 8184.81 crore were released in the country under PKVY during the year 2021-2022, but Gujarat received nil funds in 2021-22. “Not even a single paisa has been spent by the Gujarat government to attract or encourage farmers,” he said.
The Gujarat Natural Farming and Organic Agricultural University were established six years ago by the state government to guide and divert farmers in Gujarat to organic farming. According to the vice-chancellor of this university, farmers in Gujarat have shifted to natural farming rather than organic.
