The Estimates Committee headed by Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday presented the National Project on Organic Farming suggesting a comprehensive policy and implementation of organic farming through a single nodal Ministry. The report tabled in Parliament detailed alarming level of contamination of the fertile lands across India due to the unscientific use of chemical fertilisers over the decades.
The panel also suggested integration of schemes, certification and prevention of fake products in the organic farming sector. It further suggested providing subsidy on par with other agricultural activities to make the sector attractive to the farmers.
Urgent steps are required to curb sale of fake organic items as India has potential to boost export of organic products to `6,000 crore from the existing `1,825 crore, it said. Briefing media on the issue, Joshi said the availability of fake organic produce will have far reaching adverse implications on India’s organic trade.
“The Committee recommended that stringent punishment may be meted out to such entities not only involved in making fake organic produce but also the entities dealing by way of trading and exporting spurious organic products,” he said.
Pulling up the Government for running various programmes on organic farming in “disjointed” way, the Committee recommended that the National Project on Organic Farming be made as part of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and also bring a comprehensive policy on organic farming.
The Committee also recommended that there should be a single nodal Ministry to promote organic products from farming to exports. The Committee has recommended the Government to “revisit” and strengthen the administrative set up in the Agriculture Ministry and put in place a robust inter-ministerial coordination mechanism.