India: Jammu to switch to organic farming, with 800 hectares

Source: indianexpress.com
By Arun Sharma

OrganicPortal NewsRoom

To explore markets elsewhere in the country and abroad for its saffron, basmati rice and rajmash among various other agricultural produce, the Jammu-Kashmir government is adopting organic farming in a systematic manner.

It has identified 800 hectares of agricultural land in the hilly districts of Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban, besides the plains of Jammu, and entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently with three private service providers — New Delhi-based M/s International Panaacea Ltd, Jaipur-based M/s M R Morarka-GDC Rural Research Foundation and the Jammu-based M/s Sarveshwar Organic Foods Ltd.

These service providers will not only bring the earmarked land under organic farming, but also ensure certification of the agricultural produce and its marketing. The firms will be paid Rs 1.60 crore by the state government over a period of three years.

Significantly, farming is already semi-organic by default in large tracts of cultivable lands across the state, especially higher reaches of Kishtwar, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua districts. Though a large number of crops are grown there without or with little use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in view of the temperate climate, the agricultural yield so produced needs certification, officials point out.

The motive behing organic farming along commercial and scientific lines, according to State’s Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, is to make farming sustainable in the state where people have small land holdings. Under organic farming, there is a good scope for Basmati rice, which is grown on over 35,000 hectares of land in the state and has a production of over 88,000 metric tonnes, besides rajmash, pulses, saffron, peas and potato, which are cultivated in temperate areas during the Kharif season, Mir said.

The entire exercise is aimed at tapping the increased inclination among consumers world over towards organic agricultural products in view of their environmental, health and nutritious advantages. As these fetch higher remunerations to the growers, the shift also intends to arrest the growing trend among rural youth looking at urban areas for jobs.

The minimum period for conversion of the 800 hectares of land across Jammu region into organic farming has been fixed as three years, says Director, Agriculture, Ajay Khajuria. However, the places where farming is already organic or semi-organic by default, the minimum period can be reduced, he added.

Tip: OrganicPortal India - Organic Agriculture

OrganicPortal NewsRoom

16.01.2012

TOP 3 most read news:

India: Eco-tourism, organic farming key areas says Nobel Laureate Joseph E Stiglitz of Columbia University
Germany: SÖL (Stiftung Ökologie & Landbau) - Foundation Ecology & Agriculture from A to Z
USA: Few US vets trained to treat organic livestock

Besuchen Sie OrganicPortal Newsroom Deutschland
NEW - Organic - Conferences - Events - Fairs