UP govt plans ₹2,500cr push for natural farming

The Uttar Pradesh government Monday said it plans to bring over 2.5 lakh farmers into the fold of natural farming across 282 blocks and 2,144 gram panchayats with investments of more than ₹2,500 crore over the next two years.

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

The alarming rise of heavy metals in agricultural soil has emerged as a major crisis for the farming sector, the state government said in a statement. A global report reveals that around 15 per cent of the world’s cultivable land is contaminated with toxic heavy metals, affecting 1.4 billion people.

Harmful elements like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead have reached alarming proportions in many regions. According to biologists from the University of York, these metals enter the food chain through soil, water, and air, posing long-term health risks to humans, animals, and aquatic life, the statement said.