The Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region [Dr. Jitendra Singh]
(a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 511 for answer on 29/04/2015.
(a) No Sir. The North Eastern Council has not urged the Member States to promote organic farming.
(b) The North Eastern State Governments have encou- raged organic farming in their respective States. Some of the initiatives undertaken by them are given below:
Sl. Name of Initiative of No. the State organic farming
1. Assam The Government of Assam has not drafted a policy on organic farming. But, organic farming is being promoted under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) covering 4500 ha of crop land with third party certi- fication programme. Government of Assam has submitted a pro- ject proposal amou- nting to Rs.9.6 crore under Mission Organic Farming – North East. 2. Meghalaya The Government of Meghalaya has not drafted State Policy for promotion of Organic Farming. No fund has been recei- ved from any agency under Government of India. 3. Arunachal The Government of Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh has drafted state policy on organic farming but no specific action has been taken except that planning is under progress. No fund has been allocated for sanction under organic farming during the last three years. 4. Sikkim The Government of Sikkim has initiated promotion of organic farming since 2003. The Sikkim Organic Mission was formally launched in 2010 with the objective to bring the entire agricultural land under certification as organic farming. The process of certifying the land as organic is planned to be completed by December, 2015. Prese- ntly, 43,215 ha of land is under organic farming and more than 30,000 ha of land is under process in various phases. Ministry of Agriculture (Organic Farming Cell), Government of India has released Rs.4.7 crore under Soil Health Management and Rs.6.9 crore under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture to the State Department of Agriculture. 5. Manipur The Government of Manipur has not drafted any policy to promote organic farming. No fund has been received from any agencies under Government of India. 6. Mizoram The Government of Mizoram has adopted Mizoram Organic Farming Act, 2004 to promote organic farming in conso- nance with the National Organic Programme. Organic farming will be extended to the whole State except the areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitu- tion of India. No fund has been received from any agencies under Gove- rnment of India. 7. Nagaland The Government of Nagaland has framed a concept note on Organic Farming Policy. Ministry of Agriculture (Organic Farming Cell), Government of India, has submitted that it has released Rs.1.01 crore under Soil Health Mana- gement and Rs.0.30 crore under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture to the Government of Nagaland. 8. Tripura The Government of Tripura has not framed any policy for promotion of Organic Farming. No fund has been received from any agencies under the Government of India.
(c) Union Finance Minister in his budget speech for 2014-15 announced that:
“North Eastern Region of India has tremendous potential for development of organic farming. With a growing global demand for organic food, people living in the NE states can reap rich harvest from development of commercial organic farming. To facilitate this, I propose to provide a sum of Rs.100 crore for this purpose in the current financial year.”
Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region has initiated necessary action as per the extant procedure such as preparation of Concept Note, Operational Guidelines, convening meetings of Standing Finance Committee and preparation of Cabinet Note for approval of the Government.
Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture are imple- menting similar schemes. The Agriculture and Pro- cessed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under Ministry of Commerce is undertaking the implementation of certification and export related activities of organic farming. Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region is also consulting these agencies for preparation of a suitable scheme.
(d) However, pending finalization of scheme to enable implementation, no funds have been allo- cated to the States under this Scheme.
