National mission worth Rs 2,481 crore to promote natural farming

Union Cabinet on Monday approved the launching of a national mission to promote natural farming among one crore farmers across the country, with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore till 2025-26.

In the next two years, the mission will be implemented in 15,000 clusters in gram panchayats, which are willing, and reach one crore farmers and initiate natural farming in 7.5 lakh hectares of area.

At present, around 10 lakh hectares are under natural farming. Preference will be given to areas having prevalence of farmers practising natural farming, primary agricultural credit societies and farmer producer organisations.

Under the mission, 10,000 bio-input resource centres will also be set up to provide easy availability and accessibility to ready-to-use natural farming inputs for farmers.