Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently urged all states to join him in making organic farming a national movement. However, natural farming is practiced by only 3% of Indian farmers, accounting for a modest fraction of the country's agriculture.
According to projections based on Agricultural Census 2015-16 data for 2018-19, the overall number of landholding farmers in the country is around 15.11 crore. This month, the Ministry of Agriculture notified the Lok Sabha that organic farming had been adopted by 43,38,495 farmers across the country until 2020-21. Madhya Pradesh is the state with the most organic farmers (7,73,902), followed by Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
Land Coverage Under Organic Farming
A total of 38.09 lakh hectares have been recognized as organic (by July 2021). According to the Land Use Statistics 2016-17, the country's overall geographical area is 328.7 million hectares, with a reported net sown area of 139.4 million hectares and a gross cropped area of 200.2 million hectares with a cropping intensity of 143.6 percent. The sown net area accounts for 42.4 percent of the overall geographical area. There are 68.6 million hectares of net irrigated land. In light of these numbers, the amount of land used for organic farming is negligible.
The Indian government is pushing organic product exports on the international market. However, exports remain extremely limited. India ranks first in terms of organic farmers and ninth in terms of organic farming area, according to the government. According to the administration, Sikkim was the first state in the world to become totally organic, and other states such as Tripura and Uttarakhand have set similar goals.
Administration and Domestic Effort
In March of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture told the Lok Sabha that demand for organic farming has surged in the domestic market in recent years. According to a collaborative study conducted by Assocham and EY, the domestic organic industry is increasing at a rate of 17%, with estimated demand for organic food reaching Rs 87.1 crore by 2021, up from Rs 53.3 crore in 2016.
Since 2015-16, the government has promoted organic farming through specific initiatives such as the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (Movcdner). Both schemes place a strong emphasis on providing organic farmers with end-to-end support, from production to certification and marketing. To promote organic farmers, these initiatives include post-harvest management assistance such as processing, packing, and marketing.
Organic farmers receive a financial support of Rs 50,000 per acre over three years under PKVY, of which Rs 31,000 (61%) is paid directly through DBT for inputs such as bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides, organic manure, compost, vermi-compost, herbal extracts, and so on.
Organic farming is regarded as a sustainable agriculture technique because it does not use synthetic inputs. For nutrient management of crops, crop residues, farmyard manure, enhanced composts, vermi-compost, oil cakes, bio-fertilisers, and other materials are utilised. Crop rotation, trap crops, bio-pesticides like neem-based formulations, bio control agents, mechanical traps, stale seedbed, and other environmentally friendly agricultural practices are used to control pests and illnesses.
