Highlights of the scheme
- It is to promote organic farming and the products will be linked with the market.
- It will be implemented in a cluster based approach and farmers will be funded to meet the expenditure from farm to market.
- There is no liability for farmers for expenditure on certification.
- Government is promoting organic farming through various schemes/ programmes under:
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)/ Paramapragat
- Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY),
- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY),
- Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH),
- National Mission on Oilseeds & Oil Palm (NMOOP),
- Network Project on Organic Farming of ICAR.
- It will be implemented in a cluster based approach and farmers will be funded to meet the expenditure from farm to market.
- Government plans to form around 10 thousand clusters in three years and cover an area of 5 Lakh hectares under organic farming.
Beneficiaries
- Farmers doing organic farming
- Farmers from NE India such as Sikkim
- Food processing industries
- Organic foods – export industry
Challenges
- Limited focus on training
- For issuing organic certificates, the scheme recommends pesticide residue testing of eight crop samples from each cluster.
- Residue testing currently takes place for pesticides for which maximum residue limits are fixed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for conventional foods
- Failure to create a stable market for the produce. As a result, farmers are forced to sell their organic produce at regular market price.
Share:
