Has India lost Rs 2,500 crores allotted under the XI Planning Commission plan (2007-12) to convert five million hectares of farm lands into organic one? Yes if you go by agro sector watchdog Crop Care Foundation of India (CCFI)'s report on organic farming in India 'Myths vs Facts report on Organic Farming.' The report, a copy of which is with dna, being released on Tuesday highlights how organic farming, which was being promoted as a sunrise sector over the last decade, has completely failed.
More seriously it charges the government and specifically the agriculture ministry with systematically fudging data in order to funnel funds worth thousands of crores into schemes which have practically done nothing for organic farming.
The report which bares facts and figures on organic farming in India, shows massive data manipulation and subversion of facts by various government departments ever since organic farming was adopted by the UPA government in 2004. 90% of the land “under organic cultivation” in India is actually forest land. Not only has India’s organic production declined from 3.88 million tons in 2010-11 to 1.24 million tons in 2013-14 but the country has only 0.5 million hectares under organic farming.
That's only 10% of what was planned with the huge budget.
In fact the report points out how growth in organic area has considerably slowed down across the globe and that less than 1% of agricultural land is currently under organic agriculture. It ranges from 0.16% to 0.64% in the top five countries (China, India, USA, Indonesia and Brazil) with the highest agriculture production.
“We believe there are vested interests claiming to promote organic farming in India by publishing completely fudged data. We strongly believe the data was spiked to artificially boost organic farming figures in the country. These revelations also bring to light the erstwhile government’s inefficiency and also its intentions to loot the state exchequer by funding dubious policies on organic farming in India,” CCFI Chairman Rajju Shroff has claimed.
He also shared a letter CCFI had recently written to PM Narendra Modi apprising him on the damaging findings of the report. The letter, a copy of which is with dna, alleges, “The central government body which oversees the growth and implementation of organic farming in India, National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), has manipulated data on organic farming,” and underlines, “ NPOF, started during the first year of UPA-I, was also one of the well-funded Central government schemes.
“During our study we came across massive fluctuations in productivity and the data on land usage for organic farming. We firmly believe that numbers were fudged to avail Central schemes which granted Rs10,000 per hectare as subsidy. The current regime will have to accept that they have inherited a massive burden from their predecessors. It is time that the government pulls the plug on schemes in which thousands of crores have been swindled away,” senior agriculture expert and author of the report S Ganesan claimed.
Global:
Growth in organic area is slow and almost stagnant across the globe
Less than 1% of the agricultural land is under organic agriculture.
The area under organic cultivation ranges from 0.16% to 0.64% in the top 5 countries with the biggest agriculture production (China, India, USA, Indonesia and Brazil)
India:
90% of land 'under organic cultivation' in India is actually forest land!
India’s organic production has declined from 3.88 mill.tons in 2010-11 to 1.24 mill.tons in 2013-14
Almost 70% of India's organic exports is used as animal feed in western markets
Latest data shows India has only 0.5 mill.ha under organic farming. Just 10% what was planned with huge budget. This despite the fact that more than Rs 2500 crores was allotted under the XI Planning Commission plan (2007-12) to convert 5 million farm lands into organic
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