West Bengal starts organic farming activities across the state
KOLKATA: With an eye to frame an organic farming policy, Bengal agriculture department, food processing industries, and horticulture department have started organic farming activities in across the state.
The increasing demand for organic vegetables, especially among urban residents, has convinced the state government to formulate the organic farming policy, senior government executives said.
The food processing industries and horticulture department has asked the rural agricultural farms to begin organic farming and assured them of technical assistance as well as help in promotion and marketing. The department will supply greenhouses and pack houses along with organic fertilizers. It will also provide cars to ferry those farm products to the markets.
The department is also taking up organic farming at its own farms.
The agriculture department, on the other hand, has set a target to prepare 32 organic villages across Bengal — especially in the districts of North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly. It has set up 120 clusters, of 50 acres each, where organic farming is taking place. Around 194 farmhouses under the department are also farming organic vegetables separately.
This apart, the department under Swanirbhar Krishi Prakalpa is collaborating with private agencies on organic farming.
Source: ECONOMIC TIMES