Himachal Governor Acharya Devvrat has said the state was taking revolutionary steps in the direction of natural farming and expressed the hope that it would soon emerge as the model in this regard for other states to follow.
The Governor was the chief guest at a seminar on “Zero Budget Natural Farming” (ZNBF) organised by the Agriculture department on Saturday. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur presided over the seminar.
Acharya Devvrat appreciated the sincere efforts of the Chief Minister in initiating natural farming in the state and proposing budgetary provision of Rs 25 crore for this sector during the next financial year.
He said that organic farming was no more profitable to the farmers as industries in the name of organic products had been set up throughout the world and the inputs were more costly than chemical fertilisers.
Acharya Devvrat said zero budget natural farming system was the only alternative for chemical and organic farming as it was safe and had capacity to double the income of farmers. Under this system, the cost of production becomes zero and products were non-poisonous. It also increases productivity of land, requires less consumption of water, protects friendly pests and the products were of best quality.
He said the number of diseases had increased during the last few decades due to unreasonable chemical farming and it was the right time to shift from chemical farming to natural farming. The Governor also expressed his concern about the monkey menace in the state. He said farmers had been approaching him about this major problem.