Area in Andaman & Nicobar to be the first large territory to get organic certification

Context

About 14,491 hectare (ha) area in Andaman and Nicobar has been certified as organic, the first large contiguous territory to be done under a government scheme.

About the organic certification under LAC

• Scheme: The organic certifications are given under the Large Area Certification (LAC) Scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification programme.

• Under LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group.

• All farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements and on being verified get certified enmass without the need to go under conversion period.

• Certification is renewed on annual basis through verification by a process of peer appraisals as per the process of PGS-India.

• The Government of India has certified 14,491 ha of such area under Car Nicobar and Nancowry group of islands in A&N Islands.

• An expert committee has verified their organic status and recommended for declaration of the area as certified organic under the PGS-India certification programme.

• This area becomes the first large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic certification.

India’s potential for organic certification

• Area covered: India now has more than 30 lakh hectare area registered under organic certification and slowly more and more farmers are joining the movement.

• Ranking: As per the international survey report (2021) India ranks at 5th place in terms of area and is at the top in terms of total number of producers (base year 2019).

• Potential Regions: Lakshadweep and Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, north-eastern states and tribal belts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and desert districts of Rajasthan has also potential to be converted in organic areas.

• Supportive schemes: To harness India’s organic potential ministry of agriculture has launched an organic certification support scheme under PKVY (Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana).

• Under the scheme, individual farmers can avail financial assistance for certification under any of the prevailing certification systems of NPOP (National programme for organic production) or PGS-India.