Organic Agriculture
                            Concept and Scenario

Introduction

Organic agriculture has grown out of the conscious efforts by inspired people to

create the best possible relationship between the earth and men. Since its beginning

the sphere surrounding organic agriculture has become considerably more complex.

A major challenge today is certainly its entry into the policy making arena, its entry

into anonymous global market and the transformation of organic products into

commodities. During the last two decades, there has also been a significant

sensitization of the global community towards environmental preservation and

assuring of food quality. Ardent promoters of organic farming consider that it can

meet both these demands and become the mean for complete development of rural

areas. After almost a century of development organic agriculture is now being

embraced by the mainstream and shows great promise commercially, socially and

environmentally. While there is continuum of thought from earlier days to the

present, the modern organic movement is radically different from its original form. It

now has environmental sustainability at its core in addition to the founders concerns

for healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people.

Concept of organic farming

Organic farming is very much native to this land. Whosoever tries to write a history of

organic farming will have to refer India and China. The farmers of these two

countries are farmers of 40 centuries and it is organic farming that sustained them.

This concept of organic farming is based on following principles:

• Nature is the best role model for farming, since it does not use any inputs nor

demand unreasonable quantities of water.

• The entire system is based on intimate understanding of nature's ways. The

system does not believe in mining of the soil of its nutrients and do not

degrade it in any way for today's needs.

• The soil in this system is a living entity

• The soil's living population of microbes and other organisms are significant

contributors to its fertility on a sustained basis and must be protected and

nurtured at all cost.

• The total environment of the soil, from soil structure to soil cover is more

important.

In today's terminology it is a method of farming system which primarily aims at

cultivating the land and raising crops in such a way, as to keep the soil alive and in

good health by use of organic wastes (crop, animal and farm wastes, aquatic

wastes) and other biological materials along with beneficial microbes (biofertilizers)

to release nutrients to crops for increased sustainable production in an eco-friendly

pollution free environment.

As per the definition of the USDA study team on organic farming “organic farming is

a system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic inputs (such as

fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, feed additives etc) and to the maximum extent

feasible rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, off-farm organic

waste, mineral grade rock additives and biological system of nutrient mobilization

and plant protection”.

In another definition FAO suggested that “Organic agriculture is a unique production

management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health,

including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity, and this is

accomplished by using on-farm agronomic, biological and mechanical methods in

exclusion of all synthetic off-farm inputs”.

In philosophical terms organic farming means "farming in spirits of organic

relationship. In this system everything is connected with everything else. Since

organic farming means placing farming on integral relationship, we should be well

aware about the relationship between the soil, water and plants, between soil-soil

microbes and waste products, between the vegetable kingdom and the animal

kingdom of which the apex animal is the human being, between agriculture and

forestry, between soil, water and atmosphere etc. It is the totality of these

relationships that is the bed rock of organic farming.

The world of organic agriculture

As per the details released at BioFach 2010 at Nuremberg, the organic agriculture is

developing rapidly, and statistical information is now available from 154 countries of

the world. Its share of agricultural land and farms continues to grow in many

countries. The main results of the latest global survey on certified organic farming

are summarized below:

Growing area under certified organic agriculture

• 35 million hectares of agricultural land are managed organically by almost 1.4

million producers.

• The regions with the largest areas of organically managed agricultural land are

Oceania (12.1 million hectares), Europe (8.2 million hectares) and Latin America

(8.1 million hectares). The countries with the most organic agricultural land are

Australia, Argentina and China.

• The highest shares of organically managed agricultural land are in the Falkland

Islands (36.9 percent), Liechtenstein (29.8 percent) and Austria (15.9 percent).

• The countries with the highest numbers of producers are India (340’000

producers), Uganda (180’000) and Mexico (130’000). More than one third of

organic producers are in Africa.

• On a global level, the organic agricultural land area increased in all regions, in

total by almost three million hectares, or nine percent, compared to the data from

2007.

• Twenty-six percent (or 1.65 million hectares) more land under organic

management was reported for Latin America, mainly due to strong growth in

Argentina. In Europe the organic land increased by more than half a million

hectares, in Asia by 0.4 million.

• About one-third of the world’s organically managed agricultural land – 12 million

hectares is located in developing countries. Most of this land is in Latin America,

with Asia and Africa in second and third place. The countries with the largest area

under organic management are Argentina, China and Brazil.

• 31 million hectares are organic wild collection areas and land for bee keeping.

The majority of this land is in developing countries – in stark contrast to

National Project on Organic farming

Deptt of Agriculture and Cooperation, Govt of India

National Centre of Organic 5 Farming, Ghaziabad

agricultural land, of which two-thirds is in developed countries. Further organic

areas include aquaculture areas (0.43 million hectares), forest (0.01 million

hectares) and grazed non-agricultural land (0.32 million hectares).

Almost two-thirds of the agricultural land under organic management is grassland

(22 million hectares). The cropped area (arable land and permanent crops)

constitutes 8.2 million hectares, (up 10.4 percent from 2007), which represents a

quarter of the organic agricultural land.

Continent wise growth –

• Africa - In Africa, there are almost than 900’000 hectares of certified organic

agricultural land. This constitutes about 2.5 percent of the world’s organic

agricultural land. 470’000 producers were reported. The countries with the most

organic land are Uganda (212’304 hectares), Tunisia (174’725 hectares), and

Ethiopia (99’944 hectares).

• Asia - The total organic agricultural area in Asia is nearly 3.3 million hectares.

This constitutes nine percent of the world’s organic agricultural land. 400’000

producers were reported. The leading countries by area are China (1.9 million

hectares) and India (1 million hectares). Timor Leste has the most organic

agricultural area as a proportion of total agricultural land (seven percent). Organic

wild collection areas play a major role in India and China, while Aquaculture is

important in China, Bangladesh and Thailand.

• Europe - As of the end of 2008, 8.2 million hectares in Europe were managed

organically by more than 220'000 farms. In the European Union, 7.5 million

hectares were under organic management, with almost 200’000 organic farms.

1.7 percent of the European agricultural area and 4.3 percent of the agricultural

area in the European Union is organic. Twenty-three percent of the world's

organic land is in Europe.

• Latin America - In Latin America, 260’000 producers managed 8.1 million

hectares of agricultural land organically in 2008. This constitutes 23 percent of

the world’s organic land. The leading countries are Argentina (4 million hectares),

Brazil (1.8 million hectares), and Uruguay (930'965 hectares).

• North America - In North America, almost 2.5 million hectares are managed

organically, representing approximately 0.6 percent of the total agricultural area.

Currently the number of farms is 14’062. The major part of the organic land is in

the U.S. (1.8 million hectares in 2008). Seven percent of the world’s organic

agricultural land is in North America. Despite tough economic times, U.S. sales of

organic products, both food and non-food, reached 24.6 billion US dollars by the

end of 2008, growing an impressive 17.1 percent over 2007 sales, according to

the Organic Trade Association’s 2009 Organic Industry Survey.

• Oceania - This region includes Australia, New Zealand, and island states like Fiji,

Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. Altogether, there are 7'749 producers,

managing more than 12.1 million hectares. This constitutes 2.8 percent of the

agricultural land in the area and 35 percent of the world’s organic land. Ninetynine

percent of the organically managed land in the region is in Australia (12

million hectares, 97 percent of which is extensive grazing land), followed by New

Zealand (100’000 hectares), and Vanuatu (8'996 hectares).

Global market - According to Organic Monitor estimates, global sales reached 50.9

billion US dollars in 2008, doubling in value from 25 billion US dollars in 2003.

National Project on Organic farming

Deptt of Agriculture and Cooperation, Govt of India

National Centre of Organic 6 Farming, Ghaziabad

Consumer demand for organic products is concentrated in North America and

Europe; these two regions comprise 97 percent of global revenues. Asia, Latin

America and Australasia are important producers and exporters of organic foods.

The financial crisis has had a negative impact on the global market for organic

products; however, preliminary research finds that growth continued in 2009 in spite

of the poor economic climate.

Standards and regulations - 2009 witnessed several major developments in the

field of standards and regulations. The new EU regulation on organic production

came into force as well as the Canadian organic standard. Furthermore, the

Australian domestic organic standard was implemented. Canada and the U.S.

concluded the world’s first fully reciprocal agreement between regulated organic

systems, and the EU introduced procedures for approving certification bodies from

outside the EU. It is expected that these developments will ease trade in organic

products and foster the future growth of the sector. The number of countries with

organic standards has increased to 73, and there are 16 countries that are in the

process of drafting legislation. In 2009, FAO, IFOAM and UNCTAD started the

Global Organic Market Access (GOMA) project. The aim of GOMA is to facilitate

equivalence, harmonization and other types of cooperation in order to simplify the

process for trade flow of products among the various organic guarantee systems.

There has been modest growth in the number of certification bodies. The total is 488,

up from 481 in 2008. Most certification bodies are in the European Union, the United

States, Japan, South Korea, China, Canada, and Brazil. A growing number of

organic producers are certified through Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)

across the world. PGS are locally focused quality assurance systems. It is estimated

that around 10’000 small operators are involved in PGS world-wide. The leading

countries with regards to PGS are located in the global South. Several organic

standard setters have also developed draft standards for climate “add-ons” for

organic certification, and it is expected that the use of carbon labeling by retailers will

grow considerably in the future.

Organic farming and development support - Both private and public development

initiatives have contributed considerably in the last 25 years to the growth of the

organic sector in many countries of the world. Activities have related to, for instance,

building up the capacities of different stakeholder groups in the organic sector,

developing domestic and international markets, and developing local standards and

legislations. One of the new initiative is the proposed Organic Research Centres

Alliance (ORCA), hosted by FAO, which intends to internationally network and

strengthen existing institutions with scientific credentials and empower them to

become centers of excellence in trans-disciplinary organic agriculture research.

International trade, an engine for growth can substantially contribute to poverty

reduction in developing countries. The Trade, Climate Change and Environment

Programme of the International Trade Centre (ITC) supports the organic sector

through the provision of market information, training in standards compliance, and

trade promotion; by supporting policies favorable to organic agriculture and trade;

and by facilitating business contacts.

Organic Agriculture in India
Emergence

The growth of organic agriculture in India has three dimensions and is being adopted

by farmers for different reasons. First category of organic farmers are those which

are situated in no-input or low-input use zones, for them organic is a way of life and

they are doing it as a tradition (may be under compulsion in the absence of

resources needed for conventional high input intensive agriculture). Second category

of farmers are those which have recently adopted the organic in the wake of ill

effects of conventional agriculture, may be in the form of reduced soil fertility, food

toxicity or increasing cost and diminishing returns. The third category comprised of

farmers and enterprises which have systematically adopted the commercial organic

agriculture to capture emerging market opportunities and premium prices. While

majority of farmers in first category are traditional (or by default) organic they are not

certified, second category farmers comprised of both certified and un-certified but

majority of third category farmers are certified. These are the third category

commercial farmers which are attracting most attention. The entire data available on

organic agriculture today, relates to these commercial organic farmers

Growing area

Emerging from 42,000 ha under certified organic farming during 2003-04, the organic

agriculture has grown almost 29 fold during the last 5 years. By March 2010 India

has brought more than 4.48 million ha area under organic certification process. Out

of this cultivated area accounts for 1.08 million ha while remaining 3.4 million ha is

wild forest harvest collection area. Year wise growth of cultivated area under organic

management is shown in Table 1. Overall status of organic production projects,

processors, quantity produced, quantity exported and the value of export is given in

Table 2, State wise details of total area and number of farmers under full organic, inconversion

and total under organic management (2009-10).

Details in respect of important commodities produced during 2008-09.

Regulatory mechanism

For quality assurance the country has internationally acclaimed certification process

in place for export, import and domestic markets. National Programme on Organic

Production (NPOP) defines the regulatory mechanism and is regulated under two

different acts for export and domestic markets. NPOP notified under Foreign Trade

Development and Regulation Act (FTDR) looks after the export requirement. The

NPOP notified under this act has already been granted equivalence by European

Union and Sweden. USDA has also accepted the conformity assessment system of

NPOP. Due to this, the product certified by any Indian accredited certification agency

under NPOP can be exported to Europe, Sweden and USA without the requirement

of re-certification. To look after the requirement of import and domestic market the

same NPOP has been notified under Agriculture Produce Grading, Marking and

Certification Act (APGMC). Regulatory body of NPOP under FTDR act is Agricultural

and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) under Ministry of

Commerce and of NPOP under APGMC act is Agricultural Marketing Advisor (AMA)

under Ministry of Agriculture. Accreditation of Certification and Inspection Agencies

is being granted by a common National Accreditation Body (NAB). 18 accredited

certification agencies are looking after the requirement of certification process.