Question : Organic Farming

(a) the total farm area, excluding forest area, currently under Organic Certification, State/UT-wise;

(b) the total number of clusters under organic farming formed since the inception of the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme, State/UT-wise;

(c) the details of the selection process and criteria used to choose the clusters for organic farming under the scheme; and

(d) the steps taken by the Government to provide the latest technologies, infrastructure and training regarding organic farming to farmers in the selected clusters?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a): The state/ UT wise total area covered under 3rd party certification (National Project on Organic Programme) and participatory Guarantee Sytem (PGS-India) excluding forest area is given at Annexure-I.

(b): Under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), 31,891 organic clusters have been formed since the inception year 2015-16 to 2018-19. The State/UT wise details of the clusters are given at Annexure-II.

(c) & (d): In general, organic farming is promoted in hilly tribal and rainfed areas in cluster approach. Small and marginal Farmers interested in organic farming are formed into groups and clusters. Each group consists of 20 or more farmers having an area of 20 hectares in a contiguous patch (as far as possible) within a village or close by villages. Around 25-50 such groups covering 500-1000 hectare area constitute one cluster.

Farmers in the cluster are provided an assistance of Rs 50000/ ha for training, on-farm / off-farm input support, post-harvest infrastructure development such as grading sorting, packing and marketing of the organic products. National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF) also provide training to farmers from time to time on organic farming practices on the request of the states.