Organic cultivation
Context: Madhya Pradesh has largest acreage under organic cultivation: CSE report
‘Promotion of natural-farming practices by governments is a recent phenomenon limited to a few States’
Report Findings:
- Madhya Pradesh has the largest acreage of agricultural land under organic cultivation, followed by Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
- The total area under organic farming for all the States and Union Territories combined in India is 2.78 million ha.
- The top 10 States account for about 80% of the total area under organic cultivation.
- At least 20 States have a policy, mission or Act with regard to organic farming.
- Some States have had a policy for several years but have not been able to cover much area in absolute terms under organic cultivation. For example, Karnataka and Kerala have had an organic policy since 2004 and 2010, respectively, but have only 1.1% and 2.7% of their net sown area organically cultivated, respectively.
- On the other hand, States such as Rajasthan, which have formulated their policy recently, have covered a significant area.
- Only Sikkim has become fully organic. Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have committed to become 100% natural-farming States by 2027 and 2022, respectively.
- Kerala had aimed to become fully organic by 2020. However, most of the States with formal commitments, barring Sikkim, could convert only 2.3%-10% of their net sown area under organic cultivation as of March 2020.
- Sikkim spent about 70% of its agricultural budget on third-party organic certification, and that farmers lacked training on organic farming and market support.
- “The Indian organic movement is far from being a mass movement even 15 years after the national organic farming policy.
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