Chhattisgarh: Baghel government begins buying cow urine, plans to make pesticide, fertiliser
Expanding the scope of its Gordhan Nyay scheme, the Chhattisgarh government on Thursday started procuring gamut (cow urine) from its go-thanks. Procuring cow urine at Rs 4 per litre, the state government plans to use it to make Brahmastra, an insecticide and Jeevamrit, a fertilizer.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the program in the Karsa village of Patan during the Hareli ceremony on Thursday. An agricultural festival in Chhattisgarh, Hareli is one of the three regional festivals celebrated by the Baghel government.
Gordhan Nyay Yojana is a flagship scheme of the Congress government launched in 2020. The government started buying cow dung at the rate of Rs 2 per kg to make organic manure from it. Gothan committees were formed to set up a mechanized system for coordinating with local self-help groups.
These Gothan committees are now empowered to receive cow urine and convert it into Brahmastra or Jivamrit. The government has issued prescribed prescriptions for both fertilizers and pesticides. To make and use locally, the shelf life of the fertilizer is only 7 days, as prescribed by the pamphlet issued by the government.
Earlier this year in February, Chief Minister Baghel had asked Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain to submit an action plan regarding the scientific use of cow urine.
Baghel, who defied the minority no-confidence motion in the assembly on Wednesday evening, spoke at length about the Gordhan Yojana scheme in the Assam and UP elections. One selling point for this scheme in all government releases is that it seems that many other states have followed suit.
The Gordhan Nyay scheme, which followed the Rajiv Gandhi Nyay scheme, followed a simple principle: to strengthen the rural economy by providing cash directly to the villages. Baghel has taken this principle a step further: by making rural areas into producers of goods that are then sold to the towns around them.
While more than 76 lakh quintals of cow dung have been procured in the last two years, women’s self-help groups have so far produced only 22 lakh quintals of organic manure. The government paid Rs 153 crore to the Gothan committees for the purchase of cow dung. Self-help groups also earned Rs 74 crore in the last two years from additional activities like making cow dung in Gothans.
