Sugarcane industries minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha (third from left) and other delegates at the seminar in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 2: In a bid to reduce excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides, the state government is planning to promote organic farming.

According to the agriculture roadmap, the government has introduced numerous schemes to promote organic farming, beneficial to land and health.

The schemes are aimed to help the consumers and the farmers. It is cost-effective and does not endanger the environment.

Organic farming relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity.

It excludes or limits the use of artificial fertilisers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms in farming.

Crop produced using excessive fertilisers lead to health hazards.

With people becoming health conscious, the demand of organic vegetables and fruits has also increased.

At a farmers’ conference in Jamui, agriculture minister Narendra Singh said two villages in every district would be developed as organic villages.

The government has already earmarked Rs 255.36 crore to be utilised over a period of five years.

Of Rs 255.36 crore, an amount of Rs 30 crore would be spent in the current financial year of 2010-11, an official said, adding the sum would be spent on those selected villages and farmers.

In the first phase, district horticulture officers were assigned the job of creating awareness about organic farming in selected villages of the districts.

“Agriculture Training and Management Agency (Atma) and Bihar Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute (Bameti) would work at the district and state level, respectively, to organise workshops,” said R.K. Sohane, Bameti director at a programme here.

So far, 270 farmers’ groups have been constituted in organic villages, which have a membership base of 4,217 farmers.

Respective Atmas have so far organised 170 training camps to create awareness, he added.

Agriculture produce commissioner Ashok Kumar Sinha visited East Champaran and West Champaran to take stock of the situation of the pace of organic farming and emphasised the need to increase the number of organic villages.