After the grand success of the Strawberry Festival in Jhansi and the Jaggery Festival in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state government is orgsing a three-day 'Kalanamak Rice Festival' in Siddharthnagar district from March 13.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in his sustained efforts of creating new income opportunities for the farmers, has stressed on promoting the localised production and providing them with a market.
The chief minister will inaugurate the festival virtually at 11.30 am today.
Kala Namak Rice, grown in this region, is One District One Product (ODOP) of some Eastern UP districts.
Those who attend the festival will be able to taste the dishes made with Kala Namak rice and can also purchase Kala Namak paddy seeds and rice from the stalls.
Visitors will be made aware of the historical, nutritional and scientific merits and information about the cultivation of Kala Namak Rice.
The event is being orgsed in order to promote, market and branding of selected products as ODOP under 'Atmrbhar Bharat Abhiyan' and 'Local for Vocal' campaign.
At the Festival, various dishes prepared by the Kalanamak rice will be displayed at various stalls. These include dishes like kheer, pulao, cumin rice, lentils, vegetable, rice-chickpeas, poha, khichdi, fara, idli etc.
Colourful cultural programs will also be orgsed in the Kalanamak Rice Festival in which local artists and students will get an opportunity to showcase their talent. In this program, progressive farmers, FPOs and self-help groups will also be provided with information related to the cultivation and processing of this product.
Kalanamak rice has been recognised with a geographical indication(GI) tag. It is grown not only in Siddharthanagar alone, but in districts with similar agro-climatic zones (Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Santakbirnagar, Basti, Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda and Shravasti also have it as ODOP.
A few months ago, the list of ODOPs released by the central government in relation to farming has been included in Siddharthnagar along with the rest of the districts.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had inaugurated the Strawberry Festival in Jhansi virtually and the two-day Gur Festival held in Lucknow.
A Dragon Fruit Festival is also slated to be orgsed in the state.
Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Export Promotion, Navneet Sehgal informed that the government desired to orgse such festivals of all ODOP agri-products which can be processed.
"This will establish these products more strongly as a brand. If the demand increases, the income of the farmers will increase. The aim of the Yogi government is also to increase the income of farmers for which, the chief minister has been personally engaged since the first day of forming the government four years ago. His efforts to have such festivals will certainly speed up this process of change," said Sehgal.
( With inputs from ANI )
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