One village in every district for organic farming

Patna, Jan 21 (PTI) Bihar government has prepared anagricultural roadmap under which one village in each of the38 districts would be selected as organic village forpromoting organic farming.

"Under the roadmap formulated for agriculture, wewill select one village in every district as organicvillage for the purpose of organic farming", state AgricultureMinister Narendra Singh said.

"Organic farming is the only way to restore fertilityof land", he said.

The fertility of land has decreased due to the increasinguse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides over the years, hesaid.

"Organic farming will increase the production offood crops", he said.

Singh said the present government had increased theagriculture budget from Rs 25 crore to Rs 803 crore and wasready to achieve the objectives under the agriculturalroadmap.

Stating that several rounds of talks have taken placebetween he state governent and various banks regardingassistance to farmers, the minister said the government wasalso making efforts for certification of organic villages asit was important for the marketing of agricultural products.