Organic Farming in India | MD BIOCOALS
- 17 December 2021
Organic Farming in India | MD BIOCOALS
In India, organic farming is still in its infancy. According to the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, 2.78 million hectares of cropland were under organic farming as of March 2020. This is hardly 2% of the country's net sown area of 140.1 million hectares.
The majority of organic farming is centered in a few states, thus many states have taken the lead in expanding this area. Over 27% of all Indian organic farming land is in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which takes the top spot on the list with 0.76 million acres.
More than half of the country's organic farmland is located
in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. In terms of
organic farming, the top 10 states account for around 80% of the total land
area.
There is just a small percentage of land that can be
grown organically.
There are currently no other Indian states that are
completely organic. Only a small percentage of the net sown land is organic in
most states. Only 4.9, 2.0, and 1.6 percent of the net sown area in Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra is dedicated to organic farming in these
three states, which account for the largest area under organic cultivation.
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Sikkim are among
the states whose net sown area is at least 10% organic. Only Goa is not located
in hilly terrain.
Even though Union Territories like Delhi, Daman, and Diu,
Lakshadweep, and Chandigarh have 10% or more of their net sown area under
organic farming, the agricultural area of these territories is quite tiny. The
vast majority of other states have less than 10% of their net planted area
covered by organic farming practices.
There is no guarantee that policy actions will lead to
more organic coverage.
Even though at least 20 states have policies or schemes in
place to promote organic farming, there is still a lack of widespread adoption.
It has been stated that many Indian states, including the states of Sikkim and
Himachal Pradesh, have shown an interest in becoming organic or organic-farming
states.
Only a handful of states have set explicit, quantifiable
goals in the absence of 100% organic aspiration.
It has taken years for some states to implement policies,
but they've yet to cover a significant amount of land in absolute terms.
Organic policies have been in place in Karnataka and Kerala since 2004, yet
only 1.1% of their net farmland is organically grown.
On the other hand, newly formed policies in states like Rajasthan have already covered a large territory. Even before the legislation was enacted, states may have begun the process of converting land to organic.
Only a handful of Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Telangana, Sikkim, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand,
Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, currently have their own state
organic certification agencies accredited by the Agricultural and Processed
Food Products Export Development Authority (APFDEA) (APEDA).
Some states, such as MP Organic, Organic Rajasthan, Nasik
Organic, Bastar Naturals, Kerala Naturals, Jaivik Jharkhand, Naga Organic,
Organic Arunachal, Organic Manipur, Tripura Organic, and Five Rivers by Punjab,
have either produced or are in the process of developing organic brands.
NPOP has a substantial share of organic coverage.
In 2005, India implemented a national organic farming
policy. About 2% of India's net sown area is covered by organic farming, with
2.78 million hectares of land.
NPOP covers 1.94 million ha; PKVY covers 0.59 million ha;
MOVCDNER covers 0.07 million ha, and state schemes or non-schemes cover 0.17
million ha.
In other words, the NPOP system covers roughly 70% of the
country's organic landmass, with 30% of that are currently being converted.
More than 70 percent of the country's organic land is
covered by the NPOP program, which was launched in 2001. In 2015-16, the PKVY
and MOVCDNER programs got their beginnings, and today they account for 21.5%
and 2.6% of the country's total organic land, respectively.
The remaining 6.1% of organically farmed land is either part
of a state program or unrelated to any program at all. NPOP certification
accounted for 96% of total certified organic food output from 2015 to 2018,
while Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification accounted for 4% of
total certified organic food production.
Madhya Pradesh, India's top organic state, with over 90% of
its organic land covered by NPOP. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan
all have more than 80% of their organic area covered under the NPOP program.
More than half of India's states are covered by PKVY and less than half by
NPOP.
The number of organic farmers in India ranks top, despite
the country's relatively modest organic farming area. As of March 2020, India
has more than 1.9 million farmers or 1.3 percent of the country's 146 million
agricultural landowners.
Some farmers are not certified and hence are not included, especially in hilly, tribal, and rain-fed places where organic farming is the norm.