AGARTALA: Agriculture Minister Ratna Lal Nath has confirmed that the Central government has approved the Tripura government’s plan to expand organic farming on 5,500 hectares more land.
Addressing a press conference at the Civil Secretariat on Friday, Nath highlighted his recent tour to Germany for the International Organic Trade Fair and Switzerland, where he was accompanied by the Director of the Agriculture Department, Sharadhindhu Das.
He stated that with fresh approval of organic farming land, the total organic farming in the state will increase to 25,661 hectares next year, which is 8% of the total farming land in Tripura.
Nath also mentioned that India currently ranks 4th globally in organic farming. In 2018, Tripura had only 2,000 hectares of land dedicated to organic farming. After the recent announcement, it has increased to 18,161 hectares under organic cultivation.
Currently, Tripura has a total of 20,161 hectares of land dedicated to organic farming. Nath notes that before 2018, the state had 132 organic clusters which now increased to 1073.
He further added that similarly, before 2018 the state does not have any organic collection centre, now it has stand at 14.
The government has also established a market linkage system with several private farms to market the state's organic produce in other parts of the country.
This includes collaborations with Big-Basket in Kolkata, Mother Dairy in Delhi, Simfed, KCS Quality Inspection Private Limited in Hyderabad, Iqua in Bangalore, and the state's Parameshwari Food Private Limited.
Earlier in 2023, Tripura brought as many as 20,000 hectares of land under organic cultivation of aromatic rice, pineapple, pepper, turmeric, and green chilly.
In the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24, Tripura successfully marketed 26 metric tons of scented rice, 62 metric tons of ginger, 14 metric tons of turmeric, and 149 metric tons of pineapples.
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