Dr. Gagnesh Sharma, Director of the National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF), Ghaziabad, visited Krishi Jagran's office in New Delhi on April 09, 2025. During his address at KJ Chaupal, Dr. Sharma emphasized the importance of organic and natural farming, and highlighted NCONF’s role in creating accessible certification systems and promoting natural farming by providing farmers with access to bio-inputs like vermicompost, jeevamrut, and beejamrut, as well as facilitating training and the adoption of natural farming practices.
The National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF), formerly known as the National Centre for Organic Farming (NCOF), was established in 2004 under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, to implement the National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF). NCOF has been renamed as NCONF, Ghaziabad in March 2022 with five Regional Centres for Organic and Natural Farming (RCONFs) located at Ghaziabad (North Zone), Bengaluru (South Zone), Bhubaneshwar (East Zone), Nagpur (West and Central) and Imphal (North East zone).
In his address, Dr. Sharma shared the journey and work of the National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF), Ghaziabad, promoting organic, natural, and regenerative farming in the country through capacity building of stakeholders. He said, “In 2004, we had 40,000 hectares under organic farming, which has now scaled up to 8 million hectares. This is a significant achievement, and it was made possible through the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture, along with the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Rural Development, and FSSAI.”
He also highlighted the National Mission for Natural Farming, launched by the government last year, with the mission to build the capacity of farmers through training. NCONF has been assigned the duty of formulating the standards for natural farming and creating a new certification that is easy to adopt by farmers. “We have started working on it, and soon we will introduce a new natural farming certification,” he added.
Furthermore, he also mentioned that NCONF has been entrusted with the responsibility of establishing bio-input resource centers. Farmers need to rely on on-farm inputs and must have at least one or two cows. Keeping cows is important, as cow dung and cow urine are used to prepare bioformulations. These formulations are mixed with natural resources available on the farm, such as Jeevamruth, Beejamruth, and mulching. NCONF’s goal is to train, support, and build the capacity of the entrepreneurs working in bio-input resource centers.
He appreciated the entire Krishi Jagran team for their work benefiting farmers and for recognizing champion and progressive farmers, which is especially crucial now for its MIONP (Make India Organic, Natural, and Profitable) initiative to promote organic and natural farming across the country. "We have to scale up this organic and natural farming in India, which cannot be achieved in isolation. We need all stakeholders to work together," he concluded.
The insightful session concluded with a heartfelt vote of thanks and a group photograph, capturing a memorable moment of collaboration and shared commitment to the future of agriculture.
