Hope On Foundation attended CSE webinar on Organic & Natural Farming In India
Chemical-free, natural farming is still in its nascent stages in our country. While there are obvious advantages in mainstreaming the practice of this kind of farming, why has India not adapted it more wholeheartedly?
Update so far on Organic/natural farming
Organic / natural farming is native to India. The farmers of ancient India were known to have evolved nature-friendly farming systems and practices such as mixed farming, mixed cropping and crop rotation. However, as on November 2019, state organic area was 111,000 ha, which is 1.1 per cent of its net sown area. New Policy aims to convert at least 10 per cent of the cultivable area into organic by 2022.
The plan is to have 13 organic outlets in every district specifically on pilgrim and tourism route. By the end of 2021-22, 1,500-plus organic outlets are planned. The organic board started with five commodities in 2005-06 and increased to 22 commodities in 2019-20 with sale amounting to Rs 11.79 crore.
Noteworthiness: A few states, on the other hand, walked the extra mile and started initiatives of their own.
Uttarakhand passed the Organic Agriculture Act, 2019, and declared 10 of its blocks fully organic. The board identifies commodity-specific clusters, areas and provides them technical know-how on organic agriculture. The state had 128,000 ha under organic cultivation as on November, 2019, which is around 18 per cent of its net sown area. The plan is to make it a 100 per cent organic state.
Then there is Odisha: It introduced an organic farming policy in 2018 and is now planning to make 30 model organic clusters.
Chhattisgarh, for example, recently took initiatives to promote rural livelihoods along with organic farming.