The Chief Minister's Office of Uttar Pradesh announced on Monday, 25 May 2026 that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed that Kisan Melas (farmer fairs) be organised alongside the weekly Chaupals held at all development blocks across the state, beginning June 2026. The directive also calls for mandi committees to be made modern, transparent, and farmer-friendly, with agricultural marketing infrastructure to be further strengthened.

Context

The post, shared by the official CMOfficeUP account, states: 'Mukhyamantri ji ne nirdesh diye ki aagami June maah se sabhi vikas khandon mein lagne wali saaptahik chaupalon ke saath Kisan Mele ka bhi aayojan kiya jaye' — ('The Chief Minister has directed that from the coming month of June, Kisan Melas be organised alongside the weekly Chaupals held in all development blocks'). The goal, as stated, is to make information on government schemes, modern technologies, and progressive farming available to farmers at a single location.

The second directive instructs that Mandi Samitis (Agricultural Produce Market Committees) be made modern, transparent, and well-facilitated in the interest of farmers, and that the agricultural marketing system be further strengthened.

Policy Backdrop

The weekly Chaupal format was institutionalised by the Uttar Pradesh government from 2017 onward as a block-level platform for grievance redressal and scheme dissemination in rural areas. The state also adopted the central e-NAM (electronic National Agriculture Market) platform in 2016-17 to link mandis electronically and improve price discovery for farmers.

By embedding Kisan Melas within the existing Chaupal structure, the government is seeking to layer agricultural extension services — covering seeds, fertilisers, credit, and technology — onto a mechanism already familiar to rural communities. This avoids creating a parallel infrastructure and instead builds on an established rural outreach channel.

Stakeholders and Impact

Uttar Pradesh has over 800 development blocks spread across its 75 districts, meaning the directive, if implemented uniformly from June, would affect a significant share of the state's farm households. Farmers would gain access to information on crop insurance, subsidised inputs, and market linkages at their nearest block headquarters rather than travelling to district centres.

Mandi Samitis and agricultural extension staff are the primary institutional actors tasked with execution. The push to modernise and make mandi operations transparent signals continued pressure on these committees to reduce intermediary costs and improve price realisation for producers.

What's Next

The immediate milestone to watch is the June 2026 rollout of the combined Chaupal-Kisan Mela format across all development blocks. Subsequent administrative orders on mandi digitisation, infrastructure spending, or vendor empanelment for the melas will indicate the depth of the initiative beyond the announcement.

If sustained, the convergence of weekly Chaupals with farmer fairs could serve as a template for other states looking to integrate extension services with market-access reforms — a policy combination that has gained traction in several BJP-governed states over the past decade.