Indian Government Focuses on Promoting Organic Farming Digitization

In its second agriculture budget, the DMK government has proposed a dozen varied steps to dissuade farmers from converting farmland into housing sites. Also, reviving native seeds and organic farming, setting up a gene pool for the digitisation of the farming process, modernising and decentralising the supply chain figure in the budget document.

The budget was presented by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare minister MRK Panneerselvam on Saturday with an allocation of Rs 33,007.68 crore. The allocation in the last fiscal was Rs 32,775,78 crore.

A sum of Rs 132 crore has been allocated for Chief Minister’s Dry Land Development Mission that will cover 7.5-lakh acres of dry land clusters for farming. There is a target of 126 lakh MT of food grains production for 2022-23.

There is proposal to launch Kalaignarin All Village Integrated Agriculture Development Programme in 3,204 panchayats at a cost of Rs 300 crore. An allocation of Rs 2,399 crore as the state share for the crop insurance subsidy, coconut development scheme, steps to conserve traditional paddy varieties, assistance for alternative crops during the kuruvai season, food parks and skill development scheme were the other highlights of the document.

The government proposes a State Agricultural Development Scheme with an allocation of Rs 71 crore to fulfil farmers’ needs, and increase their income to promote organic farming. For digitisation, there is proposal for a software-run system to provide real-time service to farmers, besides a mobile application to integrate the activities of Organic Certification.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/agriculture-budget-dmk-govt-focuses-on-promoting-organic-farming-digitisation-7827463/