Board Of Environmental Sustainability Trust
Board of Environmental Sustainability Trust (BEST)
We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children. Let’s conserve it
KRISHI UTKARSH PAHEL
The basis of agricultural science is Natural Science. But Inorganic Chemistry is being used as a major weapon in today’s agriculture. Which is gradually destroying the naturally established Biodiversity in the water soil and environment. We are seeing the negative consequences of this today in the form of adverse effects on human health. At such a time, it is the demand of the time to bring back the water soil and environment to its original condition using advance biotechnology. For this, the farmers should adopt such farming methods which will keep the soil fertility continuously increasing. Biodiversity continues to flourish. Water and environment are not polluted. Moreover, the farm production is maintained and the income of the farmer is increased.
Such agricultural methods i.e. Natural Science in Agriculture or modern natural methods is the demand of today’s time to understand such basic Bio-Physic-Chemical processes running on farmers’ fields.So that for the upliftment of agriculture, by persuading the farmers to do their own farming by adopting modern natural agricultural methods. During the year 2022-23 under the guidance of District Collector Mr. Tushar Sumera Saheb “Krishi Utkarsh Pahal” has been started by District Agriculture Officer Mr. PR Mandani with the support of District CSR Fund.Farmers in the district are encouraged to practice sustainable agriculture to prevent pollution of water, soil and air and to increase soil carbon to make the soil more fertile and reduce the effects of global warming. 40,000 farmers have been trained in natural farming by meeting small groups of 30-40 farmers in the field of natural agriculture.
Under which activities like creating awareness among farmers about natural agriculture, demonstration, training and demonstration on various aspects of natural agriculture are done. Apart from this, a model farm of natural agriculture has been developed at the residence of the District Collector where every visitorwho comes sees this farm and gets inspiration of natural agriculture.
From time to time Sarpanchs who are village headmen were invited by the Collector Sahib and the Farm Demonstrator showed various natural aspects used in seasonal vegetable crops like The effect of Jivamrut, Bijamrut, Nimanstra, Brahmastra, Daspara extract, Agnistra, Saptdhayankur on the crop in which the invitees arranged a face-to-face demonstration and provided information about the color, shape, and taste of the fruit. Also during the program Honorable Collector Dinesh Makwana from GACL, VADODARA, Sanjeev Verma from BEST NGO and invited progressive farmers of Bharuch district as well as Sarpanchshri during the farm visit to make various prepared ayams and ayams. Practical training has been given on the spot by showing demonstration on this model farm about the necessary equipment materials like cow urine, cow dung, leaves of various plants, essential ginger, chillies, garlic, dhatura leaves, proportion and usefulness of grains addition, a vermicompost model of NADEP method has been set up at the site to ensure availability of pure and quality organic fertilizers for consumption in natural farming.
Detailed information on how to keep the layer of various vegetable leaf waste, cow urine, dung, yellow soil in order and in what proportion was provided by Mr. Mahendrabhai Patel, Agricultural Scientist of Agricultural Science Center, Chasvad.
Hon.Collector Shri Bharuch Invents Natural Agriculture in Bharuch District and Farmers spend a lot of money on farming expenses like chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Concerned about which, natural farming was implemented as a model as a special approach. Under the guidance of the Hon’ble Collector, the first night meeting of farmers was held at Desad village of Valia taluka under the guidance of the Hon’ble Collector. The information about it was provided by the subject expert. In addition, the Hon’ble Collector requested the farmer friends present to discover and participate in naturalfarming.
The second night meeting was held at Anor village of Amod taluka under the chairmanship of Hon.Zilla Vikas Adhikari. In which Mr. Vanraj Singh, a progressive and organic farming leader of the area, provided extensive guidance on the benefits of adopting organic farming based on his experiences. And District Agriculture Officer Mr. PR, Mandani provided in-depth guidance in plain language to the present farmers having special experience in organic farming.
In the year 2022-23, a total of 12 mega trainings on natural agriculture have been conducted in all talukas of Bharuch district. In which total 3563 farmers were present. Apart from this, through 7 group meetings, 436 farmers and 80 gram panchayat sarpanches of Bharuch and Wagra taluks of Bharuch and Wagra talukas were given practical demos at the village level by talking about natural agriculture. Thus, a total of Rs 4,75,066/- has been spent with the support of PI Foundation’s CSR Fund for the purpose of providing knowledge and understanding about natural agriculture to maximum number of farmers of Bharuch district through the Krishi Utkarsh initiative.
In the second phase, in the current year 2023-24, organic farming farmers of Bharuch district can sell their agricultural produce from organic agriculture as organic agricultural produce so that they can get affordable prices. So that they get an affordable price and ensure that these farm products reach the customers who are interested in natural agricultural products, a total of 13 groups of 4077 farmers of the district have been formed and the process of registration has been carried out in GOPCA (GUJARAT ORGANIC PRODUCTS CERTIFICATION AGENCY, AHMEDABAD). All the process and expenses from the guidance to getting the certificate have been done under the Krishi Utkarsh initiative. In the first phase in the year 2023-24, CSR 5,37,280 Rupees of GACL, VADODARA has been done with the support of the fund.
Under the Krishi Utkarsh initiative in Bharuch district, the enthusiastic FPO- Gauekta Agri Organic Producer Company Limited, Telod Ta-Amod was promoted and the government agreed with him to take the helm for the organic farming certification of 4077 farmers belonging to 13 organic farmer groups in nine talukas. A natural farming certification program of 4077 farmers is running in the name of this FPO under the direct guidance of the District Agriculture Officer.
These 4077 farmers are entered online on APEDA tracenet portal with farmer information, land information, crop information, latitude longitude etc. successfully completed by GOPCA audit team.
An organic farmer group in Amod taluka consists of 305 farmers from 46 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like mango, pigeon pea, wheat, sorghum in a total of 163 hectares of land.
Two organic farmer groups in Ankleshwar taluka consist of 517 farmers from 59 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like sugarcane, plantain, vegetables, paddy in a total of 328 hectares of land..
Two organic farmer groups in Bharuch taluka consist of 517 farmers from 92 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like sugarcane, plantain, pigeon pea, pulses, sorghum in a total of 400 hectares of land..
An organic farmer group in Hansot taluka consists of 403 farmers from 46 villages who are cultivating crops like sugarcane, vegetables, wheat, paddy on a total of 339 hectares of land.
Two organic farmer groups in Jambusar taluka consist of 537 farmers from 82 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like wheat,country cotton, pearl millet, gram in a total of 531 hectares of land.
Two organic farmer groups in Zagadia taluka consist of 617 farmers from 123 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like plantain, sugarcane, wheat, pigeon pea, sorghum in a total of 381 hectares of land.
An organic farmer group in Netrang taluka consists of 440 farmers from 77 villages who are mainly cultivating gram, wheat, pigeon pea, sorghum, maize on a total of 261 hectares of land.
An organic farmer group in Valia taluka consists of 421 farmers from 59 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like sugarcane, gram, wheat, pigeon pea, sorghum, maize in a total of 430 hectares of land.
An organic farmer group in Vagra taluka consists of 256 farmers from 58 villages who are mainly cultivating crops like pigeon pea, mung, math on a total of 100 hectares of land.
GOPCA SCOPE CERTIFICATE (C1) certificate of 2939 ha organic area has been distributed to 4007 farmers in 13 ICS of Bharuch district.
Thus, the farmers covered under the project in the year 2026-27 will produce approximately 736 metric tons of sugarcane, 3000 metric tons of sugarcane, 6000 metric tons of plantain, 300 metric tons of paddy, 1800 metric tons of vegetables. Efforts have been made to market 1500 metric tonnes of mangoes in mango as APEDA marked organic products. As a result the farmer will get more income per hectare, Consumers will get organic products at affordable prices and sustainable farming can be done by reducing soil and water pollution.
The second phase in the year 2023-24 and 2024-25 has been done with the support of CSR Fund of INDOBAIJIN. 30 lakhs of CSR in the entire scheme from the beginning. 4007 farmers of the district have been duly recognized as natural farmers by giving first year SCOPE CERTIFICATE (C1) certificate of APEDA for natural farming by running the agricultural development initiative with the help of the fund. This year the second year SCOPE CERTIFICATE(C2) is going on.
Apart from this Hon. Mr. Director of Agriculture, Krishi Bhawan Gandhinagar has made a target demand for 2000 hectares of input assistance under the Organic Agriculture Input Assistance Scheme so that an input assistance of Rs.5000 per hectare can be given to the farmer. At present, a target of 100 hectares has been allocated for which pre-sanctioned input assistance to farmers is in progress.. And Rs.2000/ha assistance for registration is provided by Govt.
District Agriculture Officer District Panchayat Bharuch
