With the aim to improve rural economy, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has endorsed his Government’s full support to improve export of foodgrains and vegetables and said farmers and organisations doing extraordinary work in this field would be felicitated. “The need of the hour is to improve organic farming and therefore the state-run Organic Certification Institute has to be strengthened so that more and more farmers adopt organic farming,” the Chief Minister said while presiding over the 149th executive meeting of the Mandi Parishad here on Monday.

While pointing out that last year 25,762 quintals of potato, 1,707 quintals of mango and 528 quintals of vegetables were exported by farmers of the state, Yadav said the agricultural exports should increase manifold. He said the state Government would felicitate those farmers and organisations that had done exemplary work in agricultural exports. To increase export of fruits, the UP Mango Pack House in Rahmankhera on the outskirts of lucknow has been asked to provide land to set up a centre for packaging of fruits. A similar centre is proposed in Saharanpur.

“Kisan bazaars should be set up in Kasganj and Kannauj. The kisan bazaars under construction in Jhansi, lucknow and Etawah should be completed at the earliest so that farmers get a market to sell their produce. Over Rs 100 crore has already been spent while Rs 1,300 crore has been sanctioned to construct link roads to connect markets with main roads,” Yadav said.

The Chief Minister stressed on quality checks of all the constructions of Mandi Parishad by a third party. He said quality checks of the construction of Special Mandi Yard and agricultural market hubs in Bundelkhand should definitely be done by a third party. 

“The Government does not want any complaints in construction of infrastructure. The entire rural infrastructure should be of the best quality,” he said. When his attention was drawn to shortage of electricity in the state that could affect storage of vegetables and fruits, the Chief Minister approved hybrid solar photovoltaic project which would light sabzi mandis (vegetable markets) with solar lights. 

“All the mandis should have proper lighting facilities. Where conventional energy is not available, we should go for non-conventional energy,” he said. The Chief Minister said that farmers should get all the facilities. He said the forms of Mandi Parishad should be digitised and free transport facilities should be provided to milk producers between Ghazipur and Varanasi. “The Government should help farmers to carry their produce from their filed to market,” he added.

“The Samajwadi Party Government is committed to the welfare of the farmers. We will extend all possible help to them so that rural economy grows. If we improve rural economy, no one will be able to stop UP from becoming numero uno state in the country,” the Chief Minister said.