The Farmers Who are producing Organic Produce are Struggling due to poor Policy Measures, Rising input Costs and Limited Market – Promotion of Organic Farming

(a) & (b) The Policy of Ministry of Agriculture on organic farming seeks to promote technically sound, economically viable, environmentally non-degrading, and socially acceptable use of natural resources in favour of organic agriculture. It aims at sustaining soil fertility, conserving bio-resources, strengthening rural economy, promoting value addition, accelerating the growth of agro-business and securing a fair standard of living for the farmers and agricultural workers and their families.
Based on the policy directives, Government of India has been promoting Organic farming in the states through dedicated schemes namely Mission Organic Value Chain Development North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2015-16. Both the schemes aim at promotion of cluster/ Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO) based chemical free, low input cost sustainable organic farming and support farmers from input procurement to market linkages.

• Under PKVY, assistance of RS 50,000 per hectare/ 3 years is allowed out of which Rs. 31,000 (61%) is provided to farmer directly through DBT for  input (biofertilisers, biopesticides, vermicompost, botanical extracts etc) production/ procurement, creation of post harvest infrastructure,  marketing etc.

• Under MOVCDNER , assistance is provided to the farmers in a value chain mode starting from formation of Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs), on/off farm input production, supply of seeds/ planting materials, post harvest infrastructure including collection, sorting, grading facilities, establishment of integrated processing unit, refrigerated transportation, pre-cooling/ cold stores chamber, branding, labelling and packaging, etc .

• Organic Farming has also been supported under other schemes viz Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Network Project on Organic Farming under ICAR. Third party certification of organic farming is promoted by Agriculture Processed Food and Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce.

• Farmers adopt low cost Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) of certification for domestic markets under PKVY, where as third party certified organic farming is encouraged under MOVCDNER for export of niche crops.

• The major thrust of the Government has shifted from production orientation to marketing linked production so that farmers can get better returns for their produce including organic produce. To further boost production of organic produce, a dedicated web portal- Jaivikkheti.in- has also been created to connect farmers involved in organic farming with consumers directly for better prices.

(c) The Department has been focusing on creating awareness and educating the farmers about organic farming practices in the areas where clusters are formed. There is a provision of Rs. 80,000 per cluster financial assistance allocated for 10,000 clusters under PKVY scheme for the mobilization of farmers. The National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF), Ghaziabad, a subordinate office of DAC&FW undertakes extension and publicity activities through print and electronic media. It organizes 30 days certificate course on organic farming, 10 days Refresher course for analysts under Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), etc. Farmers’ Training and Field Demonstration (FTFD) programmes have been conducted since 2015-16 under “Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana’ (SAGY).

Hand holding of the farmers beginning with formation of cluster/ Farmers Producer Organisation and ensuring their capacity building/ awareness generation for taking up organic farming are integral components of these schemes.

The number of capacity building trainings conducted for the farmers in each state including the state of Karnataka is given at Annexure -I.

(d)  Government of India through its 35 Central Integrated Pest  Management  (IPM) centres is continuously working to educate the farmers and State Extension functionaries about safe and judicious use of pesticides and need based application of pesticides as per recommendation of Central Insecticide Board & Registration Committee (CIB&RC) by conducting Farmers Field Schools and 2 days Human Resource Development programmes. Farmers are being encouraged to adopt alternate pest management practices like cultural, mechanical and biological with chemicals only as a measure of last resort. The IPM centres are emphasizing to prevent a pest problem by conserving the natural eco-system, augmenting and conserving the bio-control agents and popularizing the cultural as well as mechanical practices for pest management.

(e)  The Government reviewed the Organic Farming scheme, and the guidelines of PKVY were revised in October, 2018. As per the new guidelines the farmers will have option to adopt any form of organic farming in compliance with PGS-India Standards. While adopting a system it must be ensured that the system adopted is compatible to the area and crop and assures optimum yield and provide adequate measures to manage nutrients, pest and diseases. Farmers will also have the flexibility to use appropriate package of practice(s) best suited to their situations.