Budget 2016: Farmers want concrete measures for organic farming's success

PUNE: As the 2016-17 union budget revealed its emphasis on organic farming by allocating Rs 412 crore for organic farming and announcing to bring 5 lakh acre under organic farming in next 3 years, farmers want concrete measures to implement it successfully.

"Considering that the yield per acre is very low in organic farming, we want the government to give minimum support price for organic produce," said Jayapal Reddy, secretary, Confederation of Kisan Organisations.

The finance minister also announced to develop organic value chain in the North East.

Reddy said that for success of organic farming, we need to increase the carbon content in the soil. "For increasing the carbon content in the soil, we had requested the finance minister to give free seeds of green manure to the farmers," said Reddy.

While, a section of farmers want the government to help farmers with modern technology rather than advocating the 'things mentioned in the traditional texts'. "The focus on organic farming is okay. But what we want urgently is the access to modern technology like that in the developed countries," said Sadabhau Khot, regional head of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, the farmers' organisation from Maharashtra, mainly working for the rights of the sugarcane farmers.