The Central government will develop 1268 organic clusters along the river Ganga to promote organic farming and rid the river's banks of pollution.
The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Agriculture Ministry to promote organic clusters on the banks of the Ganga in five Ganga basin States.
Nearly 136 gram panchayats would be covered under the programme in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, said a senior officer of the Water Resources Ministry.
The Government has received proposals for 309 organic clusters in Bihar and 959 clusters in Uttar Pradesh. The Ministry of Water Resources will constitute a project appraisal committee to scrutinise the proposals received from various state governments under the guidelines of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) Scheme.
The components of the scheme include mobilisation of farmers, PGS certification and quality control. It would also include adoption of organic village for manure management and biological nitrogen harvesting through cluster approach.
The clusters would also look into integrated manure management, custom hiring centre (CHC) charges, packing, labeling and branding of organic products. The expected expenditure would only be ascertained after finalising number of clusters, the Ministry said.