Lucknow, Aug 8 (IANS): Organic cluster farming on the banks of the Ganga river in 11 districts in Uttar Pradesh have not only reduced the cost of agriculture, but also increased the agricultural production and income of the farmers but also cleaned the environment.

The Yogi Adityanath government has launched a concerted campaign on this regard in the 11 districts of the state. Along with the objective of cleaning the river, organic farming is also being done on both the banks of River Ganga in these 11 districts under the Clean Ganga Mission.

According to a state government spokesman, under this project of the government, 21,142 farmers of the 11 districts, located along Ganga River from Bijnore to Ballia, have formed 700 organic clusters in an area of 14,000 hectares.

The farmers included in these clusters have grown various crops through organic method in the Kharif 2020 and Rabi 2020-21 seasons.

Kamta, a farmer from Ballia, said that he received all assistance from the government in growing, reaping and packing the organic products and got good price of their produce.

These products were displayed in the stalls of fairs, exhibitions and seminars organized at various occasions. Farmers have so far sold organic products worth Rs 2.76 crore from this project.

In view of the success of this three-year project in the first year itself, the state government is gearing up to start the second phase of this project soon.

Of the total project cost of Rs 71.40 crore, an amount of Rs 21.05 crore has been spent.

It is noteworthy that the state government, in order to double the income of the farmers, has created many facilities which included impetus to organic farming, switch to profitable crops and diversification in agricultural methods.