Context: Government of India has been encouraging/ promoting organic namely, Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) since 2015.

Background

• Emerging demand for safe and healthy organic food with added flavour of being grown in pristine environment and virgin soils of India’s North Eastern states is fast emerging as unique opportunity to the farmers of the region. 
• The disadvantage of not being able to pick up green revolution is now proving a boon and region with its renewed vigour on modern organic agriculture is poised to become hub for organic production of its unique heritage crops. 
• Realizing the potential, the Prime Minister initiated a scheme for development of commercial organic farming in the region during 2015 which later became to be known as “Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region” (MOVCDNER).

About the Scheme

• The scheme aims at development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification and creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative.
• The assistance is provided for cluster development, on/off farm input production, supply of seeds/planting materials, setting up of functional infrastructure, establishment of integrated processing unit, refrigerated transportation, pre-cooling/ cold stores chamber, branding, labelling and packaging, hiring of space, hand holdings, organic certification through third party, mobilization of farmers/processors etc.

Initial Phase of Scheme

• The scheme started with an average annual allocation of Rs. 134 crore during last five years has so far covered 74,880 ha area. 
• To double the impact the allocation has now increased to Rs. 200 crore per year with a target to cover additional 1.00 lakh ha area under 200 new FPOs over a period of 3 year period.
• Taking a step ahead the scheme besides growing and value adding the traditional crops is also aiming to bring in high-value crops under contract farming models.

Importance

• It is instrumental in bringing a definitive change in the lives of the organic growers in the region, the scheme, provides end to end support to the farmers from farm to fork including quality production, effective postharvest management, value addition through processing and direct market linkages to national and international markets. 
• Transformation of farmer clusters into Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) empowering the growers with institutional mechanisms, collective production and processing strength for quality and quantity and ensures emergence of new breed of organic agri-enterprises.
• Through the FPCs, farmers are achieving economies of scale, engaging bulk buyers and breaking off their dependencies on the traders/middlemen for market linkages. 
• Under MOVCDNER, the FPCs get access to shared infrastructure including collection centres, custom hiring centres, processing infrastructure and packhouses, allowing them to add value to their produce and market them well.
• MOVCDNER has also played a pivotal role in entrepreneurship development and has supported both FPCs and local entrepreneurs in establishing food business.