Question : Organic Farming

(a) the details of the present status of organic farming in the country;

(b) whether any steps have been taken or proposed to be taken by the Government to make the pattern of this traditional farming economical and profitable;

(c) if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the training workshops are being organised by the Government to create awareness about technique and benefits of organic farming in the country and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the number of such workshops organised by the Government in the country including Rajasthan and Maharashtra during the last three years and the current year along with the number of farmers participated in these workshops?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a): The area covered under the two dedicated schemes of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) i.e., Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) is 5.8 lakh hectares and 63,850 hectares respectively. An area of 19.3 lakh hectares has been covered under 3rd party certification of Agriculture Processed Food and Export Development Authority (APEDA).



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(b) & (c): Government of India has been promoting organic farming in the States through dedicated schemes namely MOVCDNER and PKVY since 2015-16. Both the schemes aim at promotion of cluster/ Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) based chemical free, low input cost, sustainable organic farming and support farmers from input procurement to market linkages.

Organic Farming has also been supported under other schemes viz. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Network Project on Organic Farming under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Third party certification of organic farming is promoted by Agriculture Processed Food and Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce.

(d) & (e): The Department has been focusing on creating awareness and educating the farmers about organic farming practices in the areas where clusters are formed. There is a provision of Rs. 80,000 per cluster under PKVY for the mobilization of farmers which has been allocated for 10,000 clusters of Phase I. The National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF), Ghaziabad, a subordinate office of Department of Agriculture Cooperation (DAC&FW) undertakes extension and publicity activities through the print and electronic media. It organizes 30 days certificate course on organic farming, 10 days refresher course for analysts under the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), etc. Farmers’ Training and Field Demonstration (FTFD) programmes have been conducted since 2015-16 under “Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana” (SAGY). The total number of farmers/ persons benefitted through training, campaign etc. is 56344. The details are given at Annexure I.

The number of capacity building trainings conducted for the farmers in each state including State of Rajasthan and Maharashtra under PKVY scheme is given at Annexure II.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)- Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram under the research scheme on All India Network Program on Organic Farming (AI-NPOF) has developed 51 cropping systems and conducted workshops in Rajasthan. The details are given at Annexure-III.