Organic push. More farmers from MP, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan adopt organic farming

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently appealed to every State to come forward to make natural farming a mass movement. However, not even three per cent of the farmers in India are into organic farming, which covers a small portion of Indian agriculture.

The total number of landholding farmers in the country is about 15.11 crore, estimated on the basis of projections of Agricultural Census 2015-16 data for 2018-19. The Ministry of Agriculture told Lok Sabha this month that 43,38,495 farmers have adopted organic farming across the States till 2020-21. Madhya Pradesh tops the list where most farmers (7,73,902) are involved in organic farming, followed by Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Miniscule land under organic farming

About 38.09 lakh ha area has been brought under organic certification (by July 2021). As per the Land Use Statistics 2016-17, the total geographical area of the country is 328.7 million hectares, of which 139.4 million hectares is the reported net sown area and 200.2 million hectares is the gross cropped area with a cropping intensity of 143.6 per cent. The net area sown works out to 42.4 per cent of the total geographical area. The net irrigated area is 68.6 million hectares. Considering these figures, the land under organic farming is minuscule.

Also read: Globally valid certification for organic farmers soon: Amit Shah

The Indian government is promoting the export of organic products in the global market. But the exports are still very limited. According to the ministry, India ranks first in the number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming. Sikkim became the first State in the world to become fully organic and other States, including Tripura and Uttarakhand have set similar targets, according to the government.

Market and government’s effort

The Ministry of Agriculture told Lok Sabha in March this year that the demand for organic farming has increased in the domestic market during the last few years. According to the joint study of Assocham–EY, the domestic organic market is growing at 17 per cent and the projected demand of the organic food market is likely to cross 87.1 crore by 2021 from ₹53.3 crore in 2016.

The Government has been promoting organic farming through dedicated schemes, namely Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (Movcdner) since 2015-16. Both the schemes stress on end-to-end support to organic farmers, i.e. from production to certification and marketing. Post-harvest management support including processing, packing, marketing is made an integral part of these schemes to encourage organic farmers.

Also read: Natural farming is India’s answer to the world on food security, environment concerns: PM Modi

Under PKVY, farmers are provided a financial assistance of ₹50,000 per hectare/ 3 years, out of which ₹31,000 (61 per cent) is provided directly through DBT for inputs bio fertilisers, bio-pesticides, organic manure, compost, vermi-compost, botanical extracts etc.

Organic farming is considered a sustainable agriculture system as it excludes the use of synthetic inputs in farming. Crop residues, farmyard manure, enriched composts, vermi-compost, oil cakes, bio-fertilisers etc are used for nutrient management of crops. Pests and diseases are managed by eco-friendly farming practices of crop rotation, trap crops, bio-pesticides like neem-based formulations, bio control agents, mechanical traps, stale seedbed etc.

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