Telangana State to promote organic farming

Hyderabad: RECENTLY answering a question about organic farming in the Telangana State assembly, Agricultural Minister Niranjan Reddy said that the State government was planning to establish Polytechnic college for promotion of Organic farming.

The state government has identified that growth potential for individual farmers or group of farmers who tie up with the companies for selling the organic produce in the market or directly deliver the organic foods to customers.

Particularly, in the surroundings of Hyderabad, of late, majority of farmers have taken up organic farming. Many farmers are converting barren lands into organic fields. With the increasing awareness about organic farming, some farmers ended practice of cultivation using pesticides.

However, agriculture experts suggest farmers to follow a scientific procedure for converting the pesticide- infested farmland into organic farm. It takes three years for converting a normal farm land into an organic field. The farmers also need to get the organic certificate from the organisations nominated by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for exporting and marketing the organic foods within the country. Telangana Organic Certification Authority (TOCA) in the State gives the organic certification for farmers and trade bodies. TSSOCA does the inspection and certification of agricultural products and food processing by assessing conformity of products with NPOP standards and other international standards. "We give the certification after inspecting the farm field every year from the date land was registered. Even during the conversion period, the farmer has to get certificate for each year. At present, we have 250 farmers and traders, who are certified by us to do organic farming and related business," said Yogamayi, Organic Evaluator, TSSOCA.

Though there is good development in organic farming, yet no proper facilities are available to the farmers in the State. The farmers find difficultly in selling the cultivated organic products in the market, as they don't find any separate platform for organic foods when compared with general foods.

"The State government should provide separate stalls for organic product vendors in Rythu Bazaars or vegetable markets to differentiate them from the regular vegetable vendors. The government should also establish separate cold storage units in the State for organic products. These steps will benefit the organic farmers and also encourage the other farmers to take up organic farming," said Vemula Satyanaryana, organic farmer, Sri Shiva Sai Nursery.