The Agriculture department will give shape to an organic farming mission in 2022 for guaranteeing production of safe food, Minister for Agriculture P. Prasad has said.
Food production in 2022 will give emphasis to the protection of health, Mr. Prasad said while briefing the media as part of a two-day workshop on ‘Carbon Neutral Agriculture in Kerala’ organised by the Agriculture department on Thursday and Friday.
The department will give shape to projects aimed at achieving carbon neutrality in the farm sector by including the recommendations and suggestions made at the workshop.
Farmers will be trained in agricultural practices that help reduce carbon emissions. Workshops will be held in all panchayats on the theme of carbon neutral agriculture, said Mr. Prasad. The department also plans to introduce benchmarks at the unit level (individual farm holdings) as part of assessing the emission levels, he added.
Carbon balance
Experts who attended the workshop opined that an assessment of carbon balance is the first step towards achieving carbon-neutral farming in the State. How to go about reducing carbon dioxide emissions forms the second.
Prasant Kumar Swain, Additional Secretary, (Agriculture), the Government of India; State Finance Commission chairman S. M. Vijayanand; T. Vijay Kumar, Ex Officio Special Chief Secretary to Andhra Pradesh government (Natural Farming); State Planning Board members, experts from various institutes, including the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi; Kerala Agricultural University and Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, attended the event.
