Gujarat to set up cell to implement organic farming policy

Gujarat government will set up a cell to implement its new organic farming policy with a view to promote non-conventional method of farming over the use of chemical fertilisers, a senior official said today.
"The state government is committed to promote organic farming and has allocated Rs 10 crore in the current fiscal for this purpose," B R Shah, Director of the state Horticulture department, said at a seminar held at Gujarat Vidyapith here.
"We will initially focus on tribal areas and help farmers with certification, marketing and brand building as well," he said.
"An organic cell will be created under the Department of Agriculture to implement the policy and Gujarat organic farming committee will be consulted to monitor implementation of the policy," Shah said.

Gujarat declared its organic farming policy last month and has become the ninth state to declare organic farming policy after Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The state government has launched the organic policy on April 10 and today's seminar was held to discuss on how to implement policy in phase-wise manner, Shah said.

On May 1, state Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had announced in Vyara town of Tapi district that her government will give subsidy to encourage more and more farmers to take up organic farming.
"As Chief Minister of Gujarat demonstrated a political will by introducing organic policy the state is likely to emerge as a roll model for the rest of the country," agriculture policy analyst Devinder Sharma said.

"We will take the concept of organic farming in phase -wise manner in villages and blocks of Gujarat and we believe that Gujarat can fully achieve organic farming methods in next ten years and it can show the way to country like the Gujarat model of development," he added.