Karnataka, the first State to formulate an organic farming policy way back in 2004, has stepped up measures to spread the concept among farmers in recent years. Also, it has been working on rebuilding farmers’ interest in millets through incentives such as guaranteed buy-back and a bonus over the minimum support price. To provide market linkages to the over 1 lakh organic farmers in the State, the Karnataka government is organising a three-day National Trade Fair on Organics and Millets here from April 28. The idea is to showcase the organic production capacity and create awareness on the health benefits of millets among the public, said Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda in an interview with BusinessLine . Excerpts:

Why should the State intervene when organic products already attract a premium?

Four years ago we started Savayava Bhagya, a comprehensive organic production oriented programme. We have developed some 566 organic clusters under the programme involving about 1 lakh farmers, who have brought 1.8 lakh hectares under organic cultivation. We realised that a farmer can be encouraged to produce, but unless returns are assured, you cannot sustain the organic way of cultivation. Access to the market and market are key if we have to increase area under organic cultivation.

We spoke to buyers and retailers, who said there is a lot of demand for organic products but they face the problem of reliable suppliers. So we organised the farmers (who had availed of assistance under the Savayava Bhagya scheme and taken up organic farming) into 14 unions, so that it was easier to aggregate. Since we had funded the production side of it by encouraging farmers to go organic, we are also funding the creation of infrastructure such as warehousing and grading. So far, we have spent about ₹180 crore under Savayava Bhagya, which has been one of our successful interventions. No other State has adopted this kind of model of organising farmers under clusters and connecting them with markets. Maybe a few small hilly States like Uttarakhand or Sikkim have been supporting growers, but in a diverse agriculture State, I don’t think anybody has done it. In fact, the Centre’s Paramparagat Krishi Vikaas Yojana has picked up the idea of cluster approach from our scheme.

On the market development side, we have been doing organic and millet fairs. That is again a public awareness building programme to create demand. The ultimate objective is that farmers should get better revenue. It will help us to to position Karnataka and Bengaluru as the centre for organic crops and millets.

But are farmers bringing more area under organic cultivation?

In the past four years, we have added around 1.2 lakh ha, increasing the total area to 1.8 lakh ha. Most of the new area under organic is government sponsored, but farmers on their own are also bringing area under organic. There is a State agency for organic certification. Some private NGO type agencies are also assisting with certification.

Any plans for an umbrella brand for organic products?

We want to brand Karnataka’s organic products and millets. It has been a work in progress.

What has been your experience on reviving millets?

The area under millets, which had gone down, is now beginning to look up after we started to incentivise production of ragi and jowar from 2013-14 through subsidised seeds, guaranteed buyback and providing bonus over the MSP. We now have around 20 lakh ha under millets, mainly jowar and ragi. The area under other millets such as foxtail and barnyard millet is around 30,000 ha.

The awareness of millet is still low. We want to position millets as a healthy food and our own alternative to oats or quinoa, which are not grown by our farmers. With drought and climate change becoming an increasing reality, they are most suited for water deficit and drought conditions. They require far lesser chemical fertilisers and virtually zero sprays or pesticides. For farmers, they are a hardy and low-risk crop. For millets such as foxtail, proso and barnyard, it is difficult to come up with a programme. But once the market picks up, I am expecting their prices to pick up and that could act as an incentive. There could be a spurt in prices of these millets in one or two years.

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