Commercial organic farming in Northeast

Digital technology, giving rise to e-marketing platforms, has unlocked the opportunities for procuring organic food from agro-climatic zones that are far away. Growing consciousness of food safety and healthy living has pushed the demand for organic food. India’s Northeast region missed the Green Revolution, due to which agricultural practices in most areas of the region remain organic and free from the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Increasing traditional organic farming practices to tap the growing market demand requires increasing production on a commercial scale. The Mission Organic Value Chain Development in the North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) is a central sector scheme aimed at producing certified organic products and developing end-to-end organic value chains in the region. A review of the implementation of the scheme launched in 2015–16 brought to the fore significant progress made, but there is ample scope for branding more organic products in the region to capture the growing market. So far, 1.73 lakh hectares have been brought under organic farming under the scheme, which has benefited 1.89 lakh farmers. The formation of 379 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies has led to the creation of 205 collection, aggregation, and grading units, 190 customs hiring centres, and 123 processing units and pack houses, which speaks volumes about efforts to mobilise traditional organic farmers as stakeholders in modern business models. To date, seven brands have been developed, but with the growing list of agricultural produce from the region with a Geographic Indicator (GI) tag, there is ample scope for developing more brands of organic food products from the region. The GI tag attracts stakeholders in the organic value chain to explore the potential to scale up production on a commercial scale. Improved connectivity, more particularly the push for rural connectivity, both physical and digital, has created new opportunities that need to be showcased to traditional organic farmers to ignite their imagination about the potential of growing on a commercial scale from subsistence agriculture. Adequate care must be taken in certification as the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has also grown in the region, with farmers adopting high-yielding hybrid varieties to boost production. Organic produce has a production limitation, due to which branding plays a crucial role in ensuring a premium price to distinguish it from non-organic farm produce from the region. Exports of organic and flood-resilient Bao Dhan (red rice) from Dhemaji and black rice from Goalpara with high nutritional value are examples of organic produce from the region fetching a premium price for farmers. The list growing over the past five to six years and showcasing the success stories can motivate farmers growing organic vegetables and fruits to take advantage of the MOVCDNER benefits to script their own success stories. Documenting the traditional knowledge of organic farming is crucial, as agrarian crises due to a dearth of marketing support and non-remunerative prices have pushed many youth from such traditional organic farming clusters to shift to alternative livelihoods and migrate to cities and towns. This has disrupted the transfer of traditional knowledge to the next generation in some villages, and if the knowledge and practices are documented, it will be easier to introduce them by providing handholding support to encourage unemployed youth to tap into the potential of traditional practices for remunerative organic farming. Apart from the export market, the growing domestic market of well-off buyers in urban areas who are ready to pay a premium price for organic food products has also created unique opportunities for organic producers in the region. Boosting production of such products is essential to ensure that market demand does not lead to nutrition-deprivation for growers and their family members if entire produce is procured through FPOs, FPCs, and other marketing channels to maximise earnings and villagers are left with no such healthy food products available either at the fields or in village markets for inclusion in regular meals. Balancing the market demand and household requirements of growers of organic food requires comprehensive estimation that can be arrived at by undertaking extensive and door-to-door surveys and analysis by health and food experts. Value addition to organic produce through food processing can augment household income compared to selling only raw vegetables and fruits. Farmers, village youth, and entrepreneurs getting information about various government schemes and programmes for promoting food processing industries in the region will go a long way in creating new commercial ventures. For individual farmers, shifting completely to one livelihood is risky, and more efforts should be made to build their resilience by developing multiple livelihood avenues such as farming, livestock rearing, weaving, craftwork, etc. FPOs and FPCs can be more focused on one or two products to take aggregation, processing, and marketing to a commercial scale to ensure remunerative prices for growers. Commercial organic farming has gained momentum in the region, but its optimal opportunities are yet to be tapped.