Hyderabad: PJTSAU introduces certificate course promoting 'Organic Industry'

Rajendranagar : Scaling the emerging and ever-growing trend of organic industry, the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) has introduced an online organic certificate course to promote skilled manpower in this field.

PJTSAU Rajendranagar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Association of Indian Organic Industry (AIOI) to initiate the online certification course that would begin from October-2021.

Elucidating the need of introducing the source, Dr Praveen Rao, Vice Chancellor, PJTSAU, said, "Market for organic products in India is rising exponentially with a growth rate at 15 per cent.

The market analysis reports have suggested that Indian organic market will touch the mark of Rs 75,000 crores business in the next five years. Government is supporting the organic industry and consumer expenditure on health and wellness products too have increased. As such, there is a great potential for organic products with profitability for advanced business goals.

With better management systems, enhancement in infrastructure and capacity building will also provide a competitive edge in the international market. To harness this potential the Organic Industry is in need of skilled manpower in this field."

"This market oriented course is solely designed for graduates and postgraduates in agriculture, food engineering, environment sciences and applied sciences. The initiate will also help promoting the slogan of Atmanirbhar ('self-reliant' entrepreneurship) and empower employment in organic Industry," he asserted.

This online course is designed to address the specific requirement of organic industry operations such as crop production, processing regulatory requirements, assessments, internal inspections, audit trails, quality requirements for certification and traceability.

"The course will enhance the skill in organic products that propelled progressing of job market. The information, guidance, practical training and course completion certificate will be provided to the participants that would ensure opportunities in placements in the organic industry like auditors for assessment of organic programmes and organic certifications," he asserted.

Organic farming is one among the list of India's National Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform. The course module is generic in nature with basics, quality issues, tools and techniques of farm management and environmental aspects.

Organic certification is a process certification and requires organic integrity to be maintained at each step of the entire chain operations till it reaches the consumers.

The entire chain of process right from farm to fork requires producers to have sound, integrated systems in place to ensure effective controls, both in day-to-day operations but also in the case of a contamination or other safety issue.