A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfares to promote organic clusters on the banks of Ganga in 5 Ganga basin States namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
It is proposed to cover 136 gram panchayats/villages under the programme.
The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) programme components will be converged with Namami Ganga programme to implement the organic cluster in these Ganga basin States.
A financial assistance of 14.95 lakhs for 3 years shall provided per cluster towards organic farming practices and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) of Certification.
The components for which funding is made available is detailed is given below:
i) Mobilization, PGS certification and training of farmers
ii) Quality control: soil sample analysis, process documentation, inspection of fields of cluster members, residue analysis, PGS certification charges
iii) Conversion practices: transition from current practices to organic farming, which includes procurement of organic inputs, organic seeds and traditional organic input production units and biological nitrogen harvest planting etc.
iv) Integrated manure management: procurement of Liquid Bio fertilizer consortia/Bio pesticides, Neem cake, Phosphate Rich Organic Manure and Vermicompost.
v) Custom hiring: to hire agricultural implements as per Sub Mission of Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM) guidelines.
vi) Labeling and Packaging Assistance.
vii) Transport assistance and marketing through organic fairs.