Kandote became Doda's first organic village
Doda, October 21: About 35 kilometers away from district headquarters at Doda, Kandote is small village situated on the bank of River Chenab that has set up an example for other villages to go for organic cultivation which is free of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Following the footsteps of Sikkim which recently has became India's first fully organic state by implementing organic practices of cultivation. Agriculture Department in Jammu and Kashmir's district Doda has adopted its first village for organic cultivation.
The village has been adopted under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (Traditional Farming Improvement Programme) launched by Government of India in 2015 to support and promote organic farming and thereby improving soil health. This will encourage farmers to adopt eco-friendly concept of cultivation and reduce their dependence on fertilizers and agricultural chemicals to improve yields.
Sarpanch-Kandote, Vimal Manhas said, “It's was not that easy to convince farmers to shift over-night from normal farming to organic farming because they had a wrong perception about organic farming as it produce less profit.”
“We organized number of public meetings, awareness programmes, even rallies in village to aware people about benefits of organic farming which is basically a traditional way of doing farming. But, finally we succeeded in achieving a milestone to become first village in district to produce organic.” he added.
Umay Safaya, Chief Agriculture Officer Doda said, “We have adopted a village Kandote in Doda-where the agriculture land of 400 Kanals (50 Acres) pooled from 50 families for organic cultivation. We have provided them vermin composed kits free of cost, seeds on subsidized rates and other help with an objective to increase their interest towards farming on organic ways,”
“People are health conscious these days and used organic products which are available in the market but on higher cost. We are not only moving them towards from organic farming but teaching them how to gain more profit from their produces,” he added.
“We have also deputed our local staff with strict instructions not to promote chemicals fertilizers in cultivation. It's our first step towards a long journey,” he added.
