By IANS,
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday said his government will help farmers adopt organic farming for sustainable agriculture and prosperity.
Inaugurating a three-day International Conference on Organic Agriculture with Focus on Horticulture Crops in Bihar here, Nitish Kumar said that the state was at the threshold of a “rainbow revolution”.
“The roadmap of this revolution will have to take care of the needs of the future by keeping environment and human life safe and also resulting in prosperity to farmers,” he said.
The chief minister said it was high time that organic farming was widely adopted.
“The indiscriminate use of pesticides is affecting human health and also the environment.
“We have decided that Bihar will not only promote and encourage organic farming, the government will provide help to farmers to adopt it for sustainable agriculture and prosperity,” he said.
He said that eastern states, particularly Bihar, are considered to be the site of the second green revolution in the country.
Nitish Kumar said that experts had expressed concern over diminishing fertility of soil due to the constant use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and that there was an urgent need to increase the availability of manure and bio pesticides.
“The state government has decided to provide 50 percent subsidy to farmers to set up bio gas plants,” he said.
The conference is being attended by hundreds of national and international organic farming scientists and experts.