PrashantNews
The non-implementation of the declared policy of “Uttarakhand Organic” has led to sharp fall of 66 percent in exports of organic products from 285 tonnes worth Rs.11.6 crore in 2022-23 to 97 tonnes worth Rs 4.2 crore in 2023-24 in the hill state, a farming promotion organization has said.
“This has been because of non-implementation of the policy by the state government, continuous migration of the people in search of livelihood as they find doing agriculture as disincentive,” said the Confederation of Organic Food Producers and Marketing Agencies.
This was stated by Dr D S Rawat who is Chairman of the organization while addressing a training & demonstration programme for sustainable organic export with the support of APEDA and G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology attended by over 100 farmers here today.
“Unless the state government incentivizes the farmers, establishes mandis, provides training to farmers on all aspects of organic farming and holds demonstration programs, the situation will continue to be disturbing and over the period of time even the farms will become uncultivable”, Dr Rawat said.
In this connection, the GB Pant Agriculture University and the Confederation have entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to pass on the organic farming technology to the farmers in the state.
Dr Rawat said APEDA should help hold training programs in interior parts of the state and organize buyer-seller meets on a regular basis. He urged the state government to accord priority to organic farming to discourage migration, and attract the migrated people by making the farming profitable.
The Confederation with the active support of these institutions will train 500 farmers to do organic farming and facilitate issuance of organic certificates from the competent authority. The state government must provide financial help to each farmer switching from synthetic farming to organic farming for at least for three years and strengthen the infrastructure.
Dr. Rawat said once the organic farming become economically beneficial, horticulture and handicrafts sectors will be revived and new generation will promote it further to a level of agri-based micro and small industries generating jobs.
On this occasion Dr. Subhash Chandra, Acting DEAN, College of Agriculture, G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Prof. (Dr.) D. K. Singh, Professor Agronomy & PI AINPOF, College of Agriculture at G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Dr. Manoj Arya, Officer In-Charge, Uttarakhand State Seed Certification Agency, Rudrapur and Dr. Santosh Kumar Yadav, Asst. Professor Agronomy & Co-PI AINPOF, G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar also shared their views and assured farmers all support.
It was stated that India organic market size has already reached USD 1,918 million by end 2024 and expected to reach USD 11,000 million by 2033 exhibiting growth rate of over 20% during this period.
The Confederation said though market of organic food is growing across the globe in the developing as well as developed nations, the organic food producFtion in Uttarakhand is becoming negligible despite tremendous potential.
Dr. Rawat lamented that unless technical knowhow was passed on to the beneficiaries, awareness was created regarding organic agriculture, infrastructure was strengthened to overcome the existing challenges, Uttarakhand will lose an opportunity to attract migrated population and arrest further exodus of the local people.