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Natural Farming: By 2030, the area under natural farming in India will be 30 percent, which is currently 15 percent. NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said that India is now slowly moving towards natural or organic farming without any threat to food security. The reduction in production during this period will not have any significant effect.
Natural farming in the country (Natural FarmingEfforts are being made in many ways by the Central and State Governments to promote farmers (FarmersSchemes are being run to encourage This effort of the government is also having an effect. Gradually, the area under natural farming is also increasing in the country. NITI Aayog regarding the increasing area of natural farming in the country (NITI Aayog ) member Ramesh Chandra said that the Indian National Food Security (National Food SecurityThe area under natural farming in India could increase by 30 percent by 2030 without harming it. At present, natural farming is being done on 15 percent of the land in the country, but by 2030, it has been estimated that 30 percent of the land will be chemical farming.
NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said that during that time there will be no impact in exports on the reduction in production, as well as any kind of loss will be compensated by reduction in fertilizer subsidy. However, he ruled out implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of cash in lieu of subsidized food grains under the PDS system as it could threaten the food security of the country. Ramesh Chand said that apart from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh is also a state where natural farming can be increased by six percent in the total cropped area. Such farming methods can be gradually expanded over the next decades without jeopardizing food security.
Food production is increasing in India
According to the Financial Express, work will be done to fully adopt natural farming, taking lessons from Sri Lanka. . He informed that the country’s food production has been growing at the rate of 3-3.25 per cent annually in the last several years while the population growth rate has gone down to below 1.5 per cent. Therefore, the domestic demand is also coming down.
Exports account for 6-7 percent of the total production
By not using chemicals, there is a decrease in production due to organic farming, but now India is in a position to move forward slowly even though the production is low. The member of NITI Aayog said that six-seven percent of the total production from the country is exported. He pointed out that the government has decided to absorb a large part of the increase in fertilizer prices, and the subsidy is expected to reach Rs 2.15 trillion in 2022-23.
India cannot give up buffer stock and procurement arrangements
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her budget (2022-23) speech that chemical-free farming would be promoted across the country, starting from farms within a 5-km-wide corridor along the banks of river Ganga. On the challenges in implementing DBT in food subsidies, Chand said the country has not reached a stage where it can abandon the buffer stock and procurement regime. He said that India’s policy of buffer stocking of food grains has been helpful in saving the country from food crisis and price shocks.
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