Lucknow, Jun 20 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to chalk out a plan to set up district-level outlets of organic and natural products and also in government mandis.

"At present, organic product outlets have been set up at divisional headquarters. There is a need to extend them to district and Mandi levels," he said.

According to the government spokesman, the chief minister also emphasised the need for organising bazaars for the sale of organic products in the state, besides setting up test labs in agricultural universities for verifying and branding natural products grown by farmers.

He further directed officials to expedite the work to establish a tissue culture laboratory in the Acharya Narendra Dev Agricultural and Technical University in Ayodhya.

The tissue culture lab, he said, must be set up on a minimum area of 3 hectares with all the cost to be borne by the Mandi Parishad.

He also said new Kisan Bazaars and Mandis should be set up as per regional requirement.

The chief minister said that it was encouraging that the income of Mandis had increased despite a cut in the Mandi fee.

The income of Mandis rose from Rs 614 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 1,520.95 crore in 2022-23 and an income of Rs 251.61 crore had been earned till May in the current financial year.