Context: Recently, India ranks first in number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming.
Initiatives for Organic farming

• Sikkim became the first State in the world to become fully organic.
• North East India has traditionally been organic with very less consumption of chemicals.
• Two dedicated programs- Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region (MOVCD) and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) were launched in 2015 to encourage chemical free farming.
• It was aimed for assisting farmers to adopt organic farming and improve remunerations due to premium prices.
• Both PKVY and MOVCD are promoting certification under Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) and National Program for Organic Production (NPOP) respectively to target domestic and exports markets.

Major Organic Exports from India

• The major organic exports from India are flax seeds, sesame, soybean, tea, medicinal plants, rice and pulses.
• They were instrumental in driving an increase of nearly 50% in organic exports in 2018-19, touching Rs 5151 crore.

Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region (MOVCD)

• It is a Central Sector Scheme, launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• It is a sub-mission under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• It aims to development of certified organic production in a value chain mode (VCM).
• VCM aims to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain.
• It is implemented in all 8 North-Eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura).

About Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

• PKVY is an extended component of Soil Health Management under Centrally Sponsored National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• Launched in 2015, it aims at supporting and promoting organic farming forimprovement of soil health.

Its Objective

• Promote organic farming among rural youth/ farmers/ consumers/ traders.
• Disseminate latest technologies in organic farming.
• Utilize the services of experts from public agricultural research system in India.
• Organize a minimum of one cluster demonstration in a village.

Major Features of the Scheme

• The cluster chosen for Organic Farming shall be 20 ha or 50 acres in extent and in as contiguous a form as possible.
• Of the total number of farmers in a cluster, a minimum of 65% farmers should be allocated to small and marginal category, to be fulfilled at cluster level as far as practicable.

Components

• Adoption of Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification through cluster approach.
• Adoption of organic village for manure management and biological nitrogen harvesting through cluster approach.

Financial assistance

• Maximum assistance of Rs.10 lakhs per cluster subject to a maximum of Rs.50,000 per farmer per ha under Manure Management and Biological Nitrogen Harvesting.
• At least 30% of the budget allocations need to be earmarked for women beneficiaries/ farmers.

Jaivik Kheti Portal

• Jaivik Kheti portal is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture to promote organic farming globally.
• Buyer can now avail organic products at their doorstep through the portal at much lower prices.
• This portal links various stakeholders like regional councils, local groups, individual farmers, buyers, government agencies and input suppliers.
• It provides various price discovery mechanisms to help farmers get the best prices for their products through forward auction, price-quantity bidding, book building and reverse auction mechanisms.