“Gobardhan” Yojana to Be Launched From Haryana
- Gobardhan Yojna, a central government scheme for managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste into manure and biogas, will be launched nationally from Karnal, Haryana on 30th April 2018.
- Gobar is an acronym for Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources.Through the scheme, the government aims to ensure cleanliness in villages and generate energy by converting cattle dung and solid agricultural waste into compost and biogas.
- The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech this year (2018-2019).
- Under this scheme, one village in every district of the country would be selected for its implementation.
- The government aims to cover nearly 700 districts under the scheme in this financial year.
- A few European countries and China have managed to produce biogas on a large-scale by effectively utilising cattle dung.
- Haryana is among the leading states in dairy farming.
- Gram panchayat has a key role in this scheme under which bio-gas plants from cattle dung could be set up at individual or community level and also at the level of Self Help Groups and NGOs like Gaushalas.
- Assistance of experts would be sought for setting up the plants. The central and state governments would provide funds in the ratio of 60:40, which would depend upon the number of households in villages.
Significance
- The scheme me will be hugely beneficial for country as India is home to highest cattle population in world (around 300 million in number) which produces around 3 million tonnes of dung.
- It will encourage farmers to consider dung and other waste not just as waste but as source of income. It will provide many benefits to rural people by keeping villages clean and sanitized, improving livestock health and increasing farm yields.
- Under it, biogas generation will help to increase self-reliance in energy utilized for cooking and lighting. It will augment income of farmers and cattle herders. It will create new opportunities for jobs linked to waste collection, transportation, biogas sales etc.
- It will also provide stable fuel supply in market for oil companies and accessible credit in market through government schemes and banks for entrepreneurs. Villagers will be mobilized under this scheme to create self-help groups (SHGs) and creative societies that will help in clean energy and green jobs initiative.
Source: Business Standard