After taking on foreign-funded NGOs, the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) now has its sights set on the Indian Government. In a letter sent to the Prime Minister’s Office dated October 27, CCFI has sought an investigation into the National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) citing data fraud in project reports, particularly in the numbers from Delhi and Orissa.

Attributing its findings to NPOF annual reports, CCFI questioned the exponential increase in the area under organic farming coverage in the Capital region. From 266 hectares (ha) in 2010-11, it covered 1,00,239 ha the following year but production dropped from 2,172 tonnes to 0.01 tonnes. The missive further states, “According to NPOF data, Delhi produced 4,765 tons of organic products in the financial year 2009 and the state of Assam produced 2,329 tons… urban Delhi’s output of organic products was 100% higher than that of Assam… how to understand all these?”

With regard to Orissa, CCFI doubted the “disconnect between area and production”. In the numbers from the NPOF report that the body cites, production numbers increased from 62,392 tonnes in 2009 to 29.01 million tonnes (mt) in 2011 while the area under organic coverage reduced from 92,452 ha to 43,868 ha over the same period. The letter alleges that the surge in Orissa’s production numbers was reflected in India’s total organic production to 29.6 mt in 2011 from 3.88 mt the previous year.

WILD VARIATION

“This kind of wild variation of data did not raise the eyebrows of the senior officials. Shocking. Was there any auditing done?” states the letter, a copy of which is with Business Line, which also alleged that NPOF and the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) had engaged in “data suppression”.

“APEDA website claims that soybeans and soy meal accounted for 70% of the total organic commodities exported (1.94 lakh tons) from India in the year 2013-14… our preliminary investigations reveal that the quantum of soy based animal feed exported as “organic” is much more than what is organically produced and/or certified in India,” the letter reads.

Signed by CCFI Chairman Rajju Shroff, the letter recommended a forensic audit into NPOF/APEDA “to fully understand the depth of data fraud in implementing organic farm projects” and sought “civil and criminal action besides administrative action against those found guilty”.

The NPOF is a Central Sector Scheme since the 10th Five Year Plan and began operations with an outlay of Rs. 57.04 crore in October 2004. The scheme was continued in the 11th plan with an outlay of Rs. 101 crore. Implementation of NPOF strategies are managed by an Organic Farming Cell located in Ghaziabad with six regional centres.

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