HAFED (Haryana State Cooperative Supply and marketing federation Limited) Organic Grower’s Group has been awarded scope certificate and IC-2 level organic certificate for 204 farmers having 400 acres area predominantly under Basmati paddy crop in the district of Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Karnal. The certificate has been awarded by Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) after auditing the soil quality of the farms of the organic farmers.
Giving this information here today, a spokesman of HAFED said this would reinforce the concept of organic farming among farmers in the state as the union Budget also talked about promoting Organic Farming for sustainable development of agriculture. This area of 400 acres is likely to be certified as 100 per cent organic by the end of Kharif 2011. Farmers are very enthusiastic after getting IC-2 status. They are likely to get higher prices for their crops grown on this organic soil.
HAFED started its organic farming project in 2007 to promote this concept among farmers by making registration of willing farmers. The concept being new and requiring adherence to stringent certification norms took time to take shape. At present, HAFED is providing hand-holding support for organic farming on 2,500 acres land in six districts of Haryana.
A group involving 750 acres with focus on Basmati Paddy is being developed in districts Kaithal, Karnal and Kurukshetra. Another group of farmers with 750 acres and focus on Desi Wheat is in Jhajjar and Mewat and 1,000 acres with focus on pulses is in district Sirsa. Farmers under these projects are being provided advisory services and organic certification free of cost by HAFED. This cost is being borne by HAFED, which is about Rs 10, 000 per hectare area. Due to the high dropout by the farmers in the initial stages, HAFED had to actually incur more on this account.
Grower Group Organic Certification is a process that has to meet strict conditions, under section 5 of National Program for Organic Production (NPOP), all the group members are bound together in a group. There are two internal audits every year and one external audit. The external inspection is done by APEDA accredited organic certification agency according to National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) standards. Complete certification is a three stage process- C1, C2 and C3/Organic, managed through voluminous record keeping and updation of records on “Tracenet” software of APEDA. The crop produced through such scientific methods of organic certification is 100 per cent organic, nutritious and safe for the human consumption and has high market value.
Another advantage of organic methods is that apart from good quality crop, the farm residue is transformed into useful ‘asset’ through composting and herbal preparations that may be used as an alternative/substitute for chemical inputs, prohibited under organic farming. Farmers covered under organic program will be able to command better prices for their produce at this certified organic land.