BIJNOR: The Bijnor agriculture department has started promoting “cow-based zero budget” farming in the district, to ensure that farmers use cow dung and urine as manure and reduce expenses to nil. The department has also started identifying farmers who are engaged in organic farming, so that they can be trained in best practices. The plan came up at the end of a training session for 1026 farmers on cow-based-farming, organized by the agriculture department at Kanpur last month. Initially, the state government focused on areas close to river banks, to keep the Ganges clean, what with huge amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used by farmers draining into the river. This project covered 27 districts, 1026 villages and 21 civic bodies.