Maharashtra, HP weigh organic policy

The organic agriculture movement is likely to gain further momentum in India as Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh governments are planning to formulate an organic agriculture policy in their states.

According to Tej Partap, executive director, International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), said the government of Maharashtra has already initiated steps towards this direction and the policy framework is presently being worked out in consultation with various stakeholders.

The Maharashtra agriculture commissioner has held two rounds of discussions with ICCOA, a non-government organisation engaged in the promotion of organic farming, in this regard.

"We have given them inputs on what the policy should contain and how it should address the issues involved in organic farming. We will have further discussion on this next month with the concerned authorities before advising the government on framing the policy draft," Partap told Business Standard.

However, he said it is too early to say when exactly the policy will come out as it involves a lot of discussions with various sections like farmers, processing units and government officials.

"We will take up the matter on a fast track after the completion of India Organic 2005, the four-day organic trade show at Bangalore scheduled to be held from November 4-7," he said.

Maharashtra will be the second state in the country to formulate an organic agriculture policy, after the Karnataka government, which introduced the policy in March 2004.Partap said the Himachal Pradesh government is also actively considering formulation of a similar policy.

"We are confident that once these states come out with a policy the organic farming movement will gather more pace and will spread wider awareness among the farmers and motivate them to adopt safer agriculture practices," he said.

Organic farming aims at production of quality and safe agricultural products, which contain no chemical residue, following eco-friendly production and farming systems that restore and maintain soil fertility.

Karnataka was the first state to bring out a policy for organic farming. The main objectives of organic farming policy are to enable farmers to achieve sustenance, enhancing soil fertility, protect the environment from pollution and equip farmers to effectively migrate to the practice in rain fed and drought prone areas.