Organic Agriculture in India
Since
January 1994 “Sevagram Declaration” for promotion of organic agriculture in
India, organic farming has grown many folds and number of initiatives at
Government and Non-Government level has given it a firm direction. While
National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) defined its regulatory
framework, the National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) has defined the
promotion strategy and provided necessary support for area expansion under
certified organic farming.
Growing certified area
Before
the implementation of NPOP during 2001 and introduction of accreditation
process for certification agencies, there was no institutional arrangement for
assessment of organically certified area. Initial estimates during 2003-04
suggested that approximately 42,000 ha of cultivated land were certified
organic. By 2009 India had brought more than 9.2 million ha of land under
certification. Out of this while cultivable land was approximately 1.2 million
ha, remaining 8 million ha area was forest land for wild collection. Growing
awareness, increasing market demand, increasing inclination of farmers to go
organic and growing institutional support has resulted into phenomenal growth
in total certified area during the last five years. As on March 2009, total
area under organic certification process stood at 12.01 lakh ha.
Important features of Indian organic sector
With
the phenomenal growth in area under organic management and growing demand for
wild harvest products India has emerged as the single largest country with
highest arable cultivated land under organic management. India has also
achieved the status of single largest country in terms of total area under
certified organic wild harvest collection.
With
the production of more than 77,000 MT of organic cotton lint India had achieved
the status of largest organic cotton grower in the world a year ago, with more
than 50% of total world’s organic cotton.
Growing organic food market
Although
no systematic information is available on size of organic food market by as per
the survey conducted by the International Competence Centre for O
rganic
Agriculture (ICCOA) in top 8 metro cities of India (which comprise about 5.3 %
of the households) the market potential for organic foods in 2006 in top 8
metros of the country is at Rs 562 crore taking into account current purchase
patterns of consumer in modern retail format. The overall market potential is
estimated to be around Rs.1452 crore
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