NITI Aayog Report on Organic and Biofertilisers [UPSC Notes]

The NITI Aayog released in March 2023, a report on the “Production and Promotion of Organic and Biofertilizers with Special Focus on Improving Economic Viability of Gaushalas.” Know more about this report in this article. This is an important topic for the IAS exam agriculture and economy segments.

NITI Aayog Report on Gaushalas for Organic Farming

The report was released by Prof Ramesh Chand, Member (Agriculture), NITI Aayog. 

• The report suggested measures for the economic viability of gaushalas, address the problem of stray and abandoned cattle and effective utilization of cow dung and cow urine in agriculture and energy sectors.

Importance of Gaushalas in promoting Organic and Natural Farming: 

• It is to be noted that in the last 50 years, there was a serious imbalance in the use of inorganic fertilizers and livestock manure which adversely affected soil health, food quality, efficiency, environment and human health.
• To address this situation the government is promoting sustainable agriculture practices such as organic farming and natural farming.
• Gaushalas or cow shelters can play an important role in it as many agri-inputs are developed from cattle wastes such as cow dung and cow urine. It can reduce or replace agrochemicals, serving as plant nutrients and plant protection.
• It can create a circular economy by recycling and reusing the waste and using it as input for some other purpose. It promotes waste-to-wealth initiatives.
• It implements Article 48 that mandates the state to take steps for preserving and improving cattle breeds and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves, and other milch and draught cattle.
• Gaushalas could also address the problem of stray cattle that damage crops in many parts of the country.

Recommendations of the Gaushala Report

1. Generating value and utility of products from gaushala: Cow dung is the major product of Gaushala. To generate and harness its value, there should be processing units like biogas plants. Value addition can be also done with proper channels of marketing and certification of the cow dung-based biofertilizers. Other types of useful products can also be researched.
2. Portal: It suggested creation of the Darpan portal of NITI Aayog for online registration of all Gaushalas. 
3. Encourage use of biofertilizers: Chemical fertilizer subsidies like urea discourage the farmers to use organic options. There is a need to create some parity between the two so as to make organic fertilizers attractive.
4. Integration of natural farming with cow economy: Gaushala can be utilised when we integrate the promotion of natural farming with the cow economy.

Conclusion: The Union Budget 2023 has also given special importance to natural farming and the recommendations of the taskforce report will further augment these efforts.

NITI Aayog Report on Organic and Biofertilisers:- Download PDF Here