Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/declare-suicide-prone-areas-in-maharashtra-as-organic-farming-zones-activist-4678385.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Declare suicide prone areas in Maharashtra as organic farming zones: Activist | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Declare suicide prone areas in Maharashtra as organic farming zones: Activist

-PTI

Banning use of chemicals will reduce the cost of cultivation by over 50%, he added

Mumbai:
In the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch for expansion of organic farming across the country, a prominent farm activist has urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to ban the use of chemicals in 14 suicide prone districts of the state.

"All the 14 districts of Maharashtra affected by farmers' suicide should be declared as organic farming zones, thus banning use of chemicals in form of fertilisers, pesticides, micro nutrients and other toxic substances used in cultivation and post cultivation processes," activist Kishor Tiwari said.

"This will reduce the cost of cultivation by over 50% and is only way to provide safe and poison free food to the people," said the president of Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission, which was constituted as a task force to redress the hardship of farmers.

"The acute distress in more than 5 million cotton growing dry land farms at present is a result of a complete failure of chemical farming. It has not only increased debts and cost of cultivation but also caused soil degradation," he added.

Tiwari, who has been accorded the status of Minister of State, said, chemicals also increases resistivity of viruses causing epidemic attacks. Unregulated use of chemicals and unsafe technology has been one of the main causes of farmer suicides.

"Thus, to address the distress in farmers' suicide prone areas, sustainable agriculture and a holistic non-chemical farming is only ray of hope," he said.

Tiwari also runs an NGO Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJS) which works for widows of farmers who commit suicides because of financial problems.