In India, Organic farming is picking up pace with more and more farmers willing to take this as a challenge to produce healthy and organic food. Organic farming holds a very bright future in India since the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers have brought in a lot of diseases to people who are eating inorganic food. In coming days organic stuff would be sold at a higher price then as compared to normal produce because people of India have started to acknowledge the fact that eating organic food would definitely improve their overall heath. Many states have setup a model organic open field farm for farmers who are interested in converting their field to organic field. A lot of emphasis is being given on farm yard manure over inorganic fertilizers. Farmers are being encouraged to use organic ways to keep pests away from plants, neem oil is one of the ways through which we can have pesticide free produce.
One of the major challenges that organic farming is currently facing in india is the poor supply chain distribution network. There needs to be a strong stron distribution channel and various state governments with the help of central government are currently working on this issue. There is very little awareness among farmers about the current trend in agriculture sector. Contract farming has the potential to boost sustainability in organic farming.
Farmers are also facing issues with organic certification. Non-certified organic products do not give good returns to the farmer. One of the main reason for this is that organic farmers are currently scattered and getting certification is a costly affair. Every farmer cannot afford to go for Certification because either it is very costly or he has very less knowledge about the overall process. There are a group of farmers who have formed local farming communities to sell there produce as a group but currently these type of communities are very few in India.
The central government of India needs to look into this matter. If we as citizen of our country keep on ignoring the matter and let things continue the way they are going, it will have a very bad impact on the health of our population in the long run. The lead taken by Sikkim state government is something the other states should try and copy. We cannot lay the blame on the farmers every time. What the need of the hour is that awareness be spread amongst them about the effective techniques and practices to be used for organic farming. They ought to know that the careless use of pesticides that they are involved in is having a very negative impact on so many people.
Basically, there are three advantages to a farmer who opts to do organic farming. Firstly, it minimizes the chance of farmer suicides by reducing their dependence on farming inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. Secondly, it helps in providing healthy food to the society. And thirdly, it helps in minimizing climate change by cutting down greenhouse gas emissions.
There is no doubt that in this competitive world in which we live today, everything is solely driven by one thing and that is money. The pesticide industry in India is a very big one. it’s worth being estimated to be around 18,000 crores. The havoc they wreck with the human lives is the last thing on the minds of the people who manufacture pesticides. They put forward the explanation that they have to use them because there is no other way they can ensure quality and quantity of crop production.