Organic Farming

REGULATORY MECHANISM FOR THE PRPMOTION AND PRODUCTION OF TRADE IN INDIA

Adoption of organic agriculture necessarily involves a sequence of steps that need to be followed by the growers and verified by certification and inspection agencies. This is necessary to ensure that the consumer is not duped and genuine organic cultivator is not put to disadvantage. To ensure this following steps are being initiated by the Govt of India and State Governments. 

    1)  Formation of organic farmer’s group : —  The farmers with similar farming and                     production system should be persuaded to form a farmer’s group, preferably in the same village with contiguous area. Number of farmers in a group may vary depending upon local conditions. Formations of such groups will facilitate inspection, certification, monitoring and supervision. 

    2)  Registration of farmer’s group with district authorities : — The registration of farmer’s groups taking up organic cultivation may be done by the state Govt. designated district level authority. This authority could be constituted under Department of Agriculture or Horticulture. For registration, only intimation may be prescribed, receipt of which may be acknowledged. This may constitute registration. The state government should prescribe a pro forma for giving intimation. This should include information about individual members, plot number, area and crops to be covered etc. Information contained in the intimations received should be compiled periodically and made available to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Govt. of India. 

      3)  Documentation of individual farms/farmer’s records : —  Documentation being one of the prerequisites for the certification of organic product, certain documents are to be maintained for individual farms and farmers. These documents provided by the certification agencies will be maintained and updated periodically both at the level of individual farmers and at the group level. An educated farmer from the group after training may be assigned the responsibility of maintenance of required documents for the entire farmer’s group to the satisfaction of certification agencies. In case such a person is not available, service providers registered with state government may provide this service at nominal cost.

      4)  Service providers : —  The state Government may register service providers. These may      be KVKs, State Agricultural Universities, Agri Clinics, farmers groups, ATMAS, NGOs, private entrepreneurs, Central agencies etc. The state government should select area specific service providers, based on their credibility and expertise. To begin with SAUs, KVKs, Agri-clinics, ATMA, Central Agencies and reputed NGOs already active in the field of organic farming may be approved as service providers. Later other private sector trained persons can be registered as service providers. The service provider will help in the documentation, development of package and practices and providing day to day advice to the farmers. Service provider being local agencies, well versed with the agronomic practices, availability of organic inputs and the technology will provide necessary advice to the farmer’s groups and will serve as real friend in need. The state Government may fix nominal fee to be charged by private service providers from individual farmers for the facilities provided. Some service providers could also become input suppliers on their own as commercial venture. However, a service provider can not become inspection agent or a certification agency.       5)